Pitcairn father 'fell in love' with 13-year-old

By KATHY MARKS


One of the principal defendants in the Pitcairn Island sex abuse trials pleaded guilty to three charges yesterday but claimed to have been "in love" with a 13-year-old girl with whom he had a long affair.

Dave Brown, one of seven local men on trial for raping and assaulting children, was the second defendant to change his plea on selected charges.

Brown, 49, said in a police interview played to the Pitcairn Supreme Court that it was "a normal part of Pitcairn life" for girls of 12 or 13 to have sex with adult men.

"It seems that it's been done right through the ages. It didn't seem wrong," he said. It had been a case of "someone following on from someone else". Even his parents started having sex at a young age. "It seems as though it's pretty common."

Brown, a tractor driver, admitted two counts of indecently assaulting a 14-year-old girl while riding with her on one of the quad bikes that are the only transport on Pitcairn. The offences were committed in the mid-1980s, when he was in his early 30s.

He also pleaded guilty to molesting another girl of about 15 during a spear-fishing trip in 1986. He is contesting 12 other charges including forcing a 5-year-old to give him oral sex, and indecently assaulting a girl aged 6 or 7 in the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Pitcairn.

In the police interview, conducted on Pitcairn in 2000, Brown said his relationship with one girl began when she was 13. He was in his 30s, married with children.

Their first sexual encounter took place in undergrowth behind the general store after he met her in the village square and asked her if she wanted to "go ride" - the local term for having sex. About a month later they had sex again after bumping into each following a swimming expedition.

Afterwards, he told police, "one of the comments she made was that 'we had to do this more often because I enjoyed it"'.

They continued to see each other, but only about once a month "if we were lucky" because it was difficult to keep their affair secret. "Folks started to get wind of it ... She was telling people."

The girl's mother asked him through the island's police officer to leave her alone. His wife, Lea, also confronted him. After a six-month break the relationship resumed and continued until she left the island at 16.

"She didn't want to let go and neither did I," he said.

Asked if he had been in love he replied: "Yes, I was. We got closer and closer."

When a police investigation was launched in 2000 into claims of widespread child sex abuse on Pitcairn, the girl was one of many complainants. She withdrew her allegations against Brown before the trial.

He said in the police interview that she had been a willing partner.

Asked if he thought it appropriate for a man of his age to have sex with a girl of 13, he said: "I regret it now. Times are changing. Things are moving forward, and obviously what we did then was not normal."