Abuse Trials Divide the Community of Pitcairn

ADAMSTOWN, Pitcairn Island — The longboat slices through the surf, laden with islanders returning from a day's trading with a container ship still visible on the horizon. It heads for the Bounty Bay wharf, where the all-terrain vehicle belonging to Steve Christian, the former mayor, is parked in the most prominent spot. The boat arrives, disgorging Christian, his son and four other men.

Twenty-four hours earlier, in a plain wooden courthouse here, the six men had been found guilty of serious crimes against children. Today, life is back to normal.

The extraordinary set of trials that ended with prison terms for four of the men was supposed to purge this tiny South Pacific island of its dark secrets, and place it on a healthier footing for the future. But if anything, attitudes have hardened, with most residents claiming that their fellow islanders are victims of a miscarriage of justice.

There is little acceptance of the uncomfortable truths exposed by the case, including a decades-old culture of adult men preying on young girls. And there is scant remorse among those found guilty.

The four given prison terms late last month have yet to set foot in the imposing new detention center that they helped build last year. They remain free on bail, living in the community, until at least February, when a New Zealand court will rule on a challenge to Britain's authority over the island.

A day after Christian was sentenced to three years in jail for five rapes, the British governor of Pitcairn signed a law allowing him to oust Christian as mayor. Christian, who has run the island like a personal fiefdom, was reportedly speechless with rage.

But removal of his formal authority has not affected Christian's standing in a community where he has been an influential leader since his teens. His rich tones still ring out over the crackly two-way radio system that connects Pitcairn's 17 households.

In their weatherboard houses overlooking the Pacific, the descendants of Fletcher Christian and the Bounty mutineers murmur angrily about victimization by British colonial rulers.

In the general store, which is open three hours a week, selling a limited range of goods, Carol Warren offers her version of the events that placed Pitcairn under the international spotlight. Warren, whose husband, Jay, was the only defendant acquitted, claims that the women who testified about childhoods blighted by sexual abuse were culpable.