Bounty mutineers ceased to be British subjects, court told

1.00pm

Mutineers who burnt the British ship Bounty in Pitcairn Island in 1790 ceased to be British subjects when they did it, the Pitcairn Court of Appeal was told today.

In the court hearing, held in the High Court at Auckland today, Adrian Cook QC told three appeal court judges that Pitcairn had never been under British jurisdiction.

He was opening an appeal by seven Pitcairn Islanders facing 96 sex charges. They are appealing an earlier ruling by the Pitcairn Supreme Court, which also sat in Auckland, that British legal jurisdiction did apply and the islanders could be tried on the island under British law.

The seven men are due to be tried on the island in September but the week long appeal which opened in Auckland today was expected to hear complex legal argument mostly relating to the contention that the Pitcairn Islanders were not British and Britain had never formerly taken possession.

During his opening submissions today Mr Cook sparred verbally with Justices Neazor, Barker, and Henry who all queried the claim that the islanders were not British subjects.

Mr Cook said that when the mutineers burnt the ship Bounty they committed treason and it had always been the defence argument that they had never been British subjects.

None of the children of Fletcher Christian's band of mutineers had ever been British because they had been born after the sailors had had liaisons with Tahitian women.

"Each and every one was illegitimate because there were no marriages according to British law and they could not be regarded as British subjects," Mr Cook told the court.

He said that meant no British subjects were living on Pitcairn Island.

The appeal hearing is expected to last all week.

- NZPA