UK 'partly to blame' for Pitcairn abuse

The senior British diplomat responsible for the day-to-day running of Pitcairn suggested a "general amnesty" to deal with allegations of widespread child sex abuse and told her political masters the situation on the island was "partly of our own making".

A letter from Karen Wolstenholme, the island's Deputy Governor until late 2002, was produced yesterday at a legal challenge in Auckland by six Pitcairners found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting children in the British dependent territory.

It contains the first admission by a British diplomat or politician that colonial authorities were at least partly to blame.

Ms Wolstenholme, who was based in Wellington, wrote to the Foreign Office in May 2000 outlining serious deficiencies in the way Pitcairn was governed. She noted that the Governor and other senior officials lived 5000km away in New Zealand, visiting only "irregularly" and for short periods. The resident Government adviser, who doubled as the teacher, was not regarded as a figure of real authority.

"There is no civil authority on the island," she said. "We rely on a local police officer, who is related to every member of the community, to uphold the law which, until we began a comprehensive review ... was in any case unworkable.

"Perhaps it is not altogether surprising if the community does not see the laws as applicable to them."

The letter was written during the investigation by British police, at a time when the scale of child abuse was starting to be uncovered.

The amnesty idea was first proposed by Paul Treadwell, the Governor's legal adviser.

Ms Wolstenholme recommended it should be explored, "to be approved for use if the investigation concluded that the offending is as widespread and culturally based as we now believe". That option was eventually ruled out by Baroness Scotland, the Foreign Office minister responsible for overseas territories, Mr Treadwell told the Pitcairn Supreme Court.

The court, sitting in Papakura, heard that a memo sent to Baroness Scotland by an official in her department noted there appeared to have been confusion on Pitcairn about the legal age of consent.

Records showed that "the fact of underage sex" on the island had been reported to British administrators as far back as 40 years ago. "But action only seems to have been taken when underage girls became pregnant."

Paul Dacre, the Pitcairn public defender, told the Supreme Court even Ms Wolstenholme and Mr Treadwell disagreed about the age of consent. He believed it was 15, and she 16.