'Extraordinary' challenge to Pitcairn rape verdicts

The six men found guilty of child sex offences on Pitcairn Island embarked on a legal challenge in Auckland yesterday that could nullify the verdicts and see them avoid prison sentences.

Defence lawyers will argue before the Pitcairn Supreme Court, sitting in Papakura, that English law was never enforced in the British colony and the men thus could not have known that rape was a serious criminal offence.

The six were found guilty in October. Four received jail sentences, but are still free pending the outcome of this week's challenge and a separate action to be heard by the Privy Council in London later this year.

Pitcairn public prosecutor Simon Moore told the three Supreme Court justices in Papakura: "Contrary to the assertion of the accused, ... at all relevant times Pitcairn has been a developed society in which rape and serious sexual offending have been known to be criminal."

The proceedings were relayed by video to the island, and about 20 locals - including the accused - watched the hearing in Adamstown courthouse.

Two Pitcairners have travelled to Auckland to give evidence for the Crown this week, and two others will testify for the defence from the island.

A Crown prosecutor, Simon Mount, told the court that the central defence argument was "extraordinary", because - if upheld - it meant that Pitcairn had been a "zone of criminal immunity" in which serious crimes, including murder, could be committed with impunity.

The hearing continues today and is expected to last a week.