Mayor used girls as harem court told

By KATHY MARKS on Pitcairn Island

The present mayor of Pitcairn, Steve Christian, had a harem of young girls whom he sexually initiated when they reached puberty, the island's child-abuse trial heard yesterday.

A former islander alleged that Christian raped her twice when she was 12, once in bushland and once inside a boat at Bounty Bay, where Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers burned their ship to avoid detection after fleeing to Pitcairn. The mayor was 21 at the time.

In a statement made to police and read out at the trial in the Pitcairn Supreme Court, the woman, now 44 and living abroad, said: "Steve seemed to take it upon himself to initiate all the girls, and it was like we were his harem."

Paul Dacre, the public defender, asked her why she did not inform her parents, both pillars of the local church, about the two alleged rapes. She said that similar things had happened to other girls in the past and no action had been taken.

"It was known generally that those incidents happened on the island, and nothing was done about it," she said. "It was shoved under the carpet. What good would it have done for me if I had reported it? I knew nothing would have been done about it, because of previous experience on the island.

"It was an act that everybody on the island knew was happening, and nobody wanted to talk about it and say it was wrong and deal with it."

Another islander has accused Christian, the most influential man in the British dependent territory, of raping her when she was a young schoolgirl. He has pleaded not guilty to six rapes and four indecent assaults.

The woman testifying yesterday told the court in Adamstown that on the first occasion, she was playing with friends at a place called Taro Ground. At that time, she was a virgin.

"Steve came along on his motorbike and asked me to get on and go for a ride," she said. "I had no idea what he meant."

She got on the bike and he took her to the highest point on the island, she said. There he led her into some bushes, ordered her to lie down and raped her. She told him that he was hurting her, but he continued. Afterwards, without a word, he took her back to Taro Ground.

Asked by Christine Gordon, the deputy public prosecutor, why she had accompanied him, the woman replied: "I felt I had no choice. I did not give any consent to what took place. I did not want it."

The second alleged rape took place a few months later, when the woman was playing and swimming with friends at Bounty Bay. She followed Christian, now 53, into a boat that was up on the jetty. "I did not feel able to resist," she said.

Under cross-examination by Mr Dacre, the woman said she could not recall any conversation taking place between herself and Christian. She also denied that she had been influenced to testify in the hope of receiving criminal injury compensation.

Christian is one of seven islanders charged with a total of 55 sex offences against children. A further six will go to trial next year in Auckland on similar charges.