Pitcairn rape victims to sue Britain
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008Kathy Marks; 29/4/08
Nine women involved in the Pitcairn Island rape trials are considering a class action against the British Government to seek compensation for the abuse they suffered growing up in the remote South Pacific territory. At trials on the island in 2004 and in New Zealand in 2006, eight Pitcairn men were convicted of raping and sexually assaulting young girls, while a ninth man pleaded guilty. Six were given prison sentences, and three are still in jail on Pitcairn - which was settled by mutineers from the Bounty in 1790 and has a population of about 50. In Britain, victims of crime are compensated under a statutory scheme that sets amounts based on the severity of the suffering. But the scheme does not apply to residents of Britain’s overseas territories, although they hold British citizenship. The Pitcairn victims have instructed a New Zealand QC, Bruce Corkill. He wrote to representatives of the New Zealand-based British Governor of Pitcairn, George Fergusson, in September asking that a parallel scheme be set up for the island.
