A descendant of Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian was jailed along with another man after being convicted for child sex charges dating back three decades.
AUCKLAND: A descendant of Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian was jailed on Monday along with another man after being convicted for child sex charges dating back three decades.
Shawn Brent Christian, 31, of Newcastle, Australia, and Brian Michael John Young, 53, formerly of Auckland, were the last two men from remote Pitcairn Island to be jailed for charges involving children as young as seven.
They were sentenced via video link after a special sitting of the Pitcairn Supreme Court here, following the conviction of six others in 2004 on similar charges.
They had chosen to return to the island, notorious as the adopted home of mutineers from the British ship Bounty in the 18th century, after being found guilty in January.
Young was sentenced to six and half years jail for each of six counts of rape and two years for each of three indecent assault charges.
Judge Charles Blackie said that at the time of the offences in the 1970s Young was in his early 20s while the youngest of the three complainants was seven.
Another victim said she was nine when Young would ask her to go with him to assist in various chores and would sexually assault her.
"What has happened to each of these victims has devastated the rest of their lives," Blackie said.
Christian was sentenced to three and a half years on three charges of rape of a girl who was aged 10 at the time.
He has already lodged an appeal against his conviction. About a third of all the adult men on the British territory were charged in the cases, which divided the tiny island of about 50 people.
Pitcairn, halfway between New Zealand and Chile, became home to Fletcher Christian and his mutineers after they took over the Bounty in 1789 and set Captain William Bligh adrift in a small boat.
It is one of the most remote settled places on earth with no airstrip and access only from sea.
Although it is British territory, the islanders claimed their convictions had no legal standing because British law did not apply.
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