Pitcairn Island Trials

Pitcairn Island Trials

Summary

Steve Christian: Not Guilty

In 1999 a police officer from UK, Gail Cox, was on Pitcairn Island for a temporary assignment where he was approached by a 15 year old girl, claiming that she had been raped by some of the older men on the island.

Following this event, more women had started coming forward with more accusations of rape against a total of 6 men. One of these men was Steve Christian, who was the mayor of Pitcairn Island.

Steve Christian was charged with 6 rapes and 4 indecent assaults between 1964-1975, all of which he pleaded not guilty.

Evidence

Jurisdiction

Even though Pitcairn Islands were considered overseas territory to the British government, it still didn’t mean that the British had jurisdiction over the island. The Crown didn’t have rightful jurisdiction as it had never formally claimed ownership over the island, nor did it ever make grants over it. Which means that the Pitcairn Supreme Court should have been appointed for the Pitcairn Island trials, as they had the legal right to try the case.

Statute or law broken

In order for a crime to have occurred, obviously there had to have been a prohibiting law that made the action a crime. Given that the island wasn’t under the jurisdiction of the Crown, the island’s own set of laws should have applied for handling of the rape allegations in court.

There is nothing in Pitcairn’s laws that prohibit rape, which means that Steve Christian should not have been allegated or charged with rape at all, as none of the island’s laws prohibit the action.

Actus Reus

Actus Reus is the physical aspect of the crime, the prohibited act itself. As rape hadn’t been prohibited in the island’s laws, actus reus cannot be proven, as rape - in Pitcairn - wasn’t considered a crime.

Argument of cultural norms

Witnesses

Conclusion

Victims and their ability to retain information accurately long after the event

Meralda Warren

In the island’s culture, the consensual age for sex was 12. The young consent age is due to the Pitcairners adapting to Tahitian culture, as the women that had arrived onto the island along with the British mutineers in the first settling group were Tahitian - and according to Tahitian culture, the appropriate age for women to be engaging in sexual activity had been 12 as it was the age in which they reach womanhood. The island had adapted to this norm, and the following generations of young women all grew up believing that the island was male dominated, and that they were to engage in sex with the men, as they were the ‘backbones’ of the island. They resigned to the situation, and it had been considered a cultural norm within the island. In fact, when an old grandmother had heard of the rape accusations, she had wondered what the fuss was about.

Meralda Warren is the sister of Jay Warren, who was the only acquitted man in the 2004 trial. Meralda believes that it is normal for the girls of Pitcairn to have sex “at about 12 or 13” and says that she herself had started having sex when she was 13. She insists that neither she, or any other women on the island, were raped. Meralda Warren, along with other women, also believe that the allegations of rape against the island men were merely the British plotting to jail the able-bodied men, the backbones of Pitcairn, in an attempt to ‘close’ down the island.

Overall, Steve Christian is not guilty of the rape allegations filed against him. His innocence is proven through evidence, such as the Crown’s lack of jurisdiction over Pitcairn island, resulting in the application of the island’s own laws which do not rule rape as a crime, and is further proven through the cultural norms that appropriate sexual activity at the age of 12 - that support his claim of innocence as it shows the lack of intention in committing a crime (that didn’t exist in the first place according to the island’s laws).

Some of the victims’ rape accusations should also be considered unreliable as the women claim to have been ‘raped’ at young ages. For instance, Jackie Christian claimed that she remembered her first rape incident at the age of 3. However, a 3 year old wouldn’t have understood what was being done to her, nor could a 3 year old have correctly retained any memory of a ‘rape’ as they wouldn’t have understood the action.

The fact that she had accused Steve Christian of rape so many years after the alleged rape alone, coincidentally after the trial had started, should have been considered unreliable. Also, after all these years, she wouldn’t have remembered who raped her - but Jackie had recognized 3 men as her rapists, Steve Christian being one of them.

Olive Christian

Mens Rea

Is the wife of Steve Christian. Olive strongly believes that the men accused of rape and indecent assault did not commit these crimes as she believes the age of consent is 12 years of age. She believes that these men were accused falsely due to their high status and power on the island. In the island’s culture, having sex at a young age was deemed as normal behaviour. She believed that all the so called victims were willing participants in any sexual acts that were asked of them.

Mens Rea is the intention of breaking the law. Steve Christian had no intention of breaking any law as sexual activity with young women had been long accepted as part of their cultural norms. In Christian’s mind, he was simply initiating the girls into womanhood as per the island’s culture. Mens rea also cannot be proven as rape isn’t prohibited on the island, and Christian couldn’t have intended to commit a crime that didn’t exist.