Pastors turned blind eye to Pitcairn abuse rumours

By KATHY MARKS on Pitcairn Island

The hymn was Shelter in a Time of Storm, and the sermon delivered in the Seventh Day Adventist Church urged Pitcairners to bond together in adversity.

But it will take more than a few platitudes to save this troubled community or redeem the church for its sins of omission.

A pastor was stationed on the tiny South Pacific island throughout the period when child rape and abuse were allegedly rampant.

But none of the men who served rotating two-year terms reported their concerns about Pitcairn, where the population was converted en masse to Seventh Day Adventism in the late 19th century.

After an investigation began into allegations of widespread abuse in 1999, several former pastors said privately they had suspected something was gravely amiss on the island, a British dependency with 47 inhabitants.

But Ray Coombe, sent to Pitcairn to minister to the locals during the child sex abuse trials that began last week, claimed after the Sabbath service on Saturday that the church had known nothing about the alleged mistreatment of children.

"They [the pastors] may have had an inkling but, to my knowledge, there was nothing that was definitely known," he said.

The trials were set to resume today, with a former Pitcairn woman giving evidence against Len Brown, 78, who is charged with raping her twice about 35 years ago.

Steve Christian, the mayor, will then go back into the dock, followed by Dennis Christian, charged with two indecent assaults and two sexual assaults.

Seven men are facing the Pitcairn Supreme Court and another six Pitcairners - now living abroad - are expected to go on trial in Auckland next year.

Mr Coombe told a congregation of about 15 locals - who included two defendants, Jay Warren and Terry Young - that the past week had been a historic but difficult time for Pitcairn.

"The peaceful, unhurried and carefree atmosphere has been interrupted," he said.

In an apparent reference to bitter divisions in the community, he added: "The more we feel threatened and under attack, the more we need to bond together and help each other."

Mr Coombe said afterwards that every family in the closely interconnected community was affected by the trials, being related either to the defendants or their alleged victims.

The church, meanwhile, is still in denial. Mr Coombe has not heard any of the evidence against the men, which includes allegations that Steve Christian raped an 11-year-old while two friends held her down and Dave Brown, another defendant, forced a 5-year-old girl to give him oral sex. Neither have the vast majority of locals, who have shunned the trials.

Mr Coombe said he had stayed away because he wished to remain neutral. That means, presumably, that he is hearing only the islanders' version of events: that all the alleged incidents involved consensual sex and girls mature early on Pitcairn.

As Edmund Burke said, all that is required for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing.