Pitcairn Islanders told to hand over guns

1.00pm

Pitcairn Islanders have been told to hand over their guns due to fears a six-week sex trial on the island could lead to violence.

Seven Pitcairn Islanders will face 96 historic sex charges in a trial beginning on September 23.

Eighteen people have made allegations dating from six to 45 years ago, that took place when they were aged between five and 15.

Pitcairn's Wellington-based Deputy Governor, Matthew Forbes, said today the island's 50 residents held about 20 guns.

He said the island's governor, British High Commissioner to New Zealand, Richard Fell, had ordered through the island's police officers that residents voluntarily surrender their firearms.

"There are two issues about this," he told NZPA.

"There are going to be some increased tensions during that period and potentially there are going to be large numbers of people wandering around Pitcairn who are new to the island and there could be accidents."

He said this was due to the fact islanders regularly used the guns to hunt goats on the small island, shoot breadfruit out of trees, and occasionally shoot sharks.

He said authorities feared that the increased tension could lead to incidents either in relation to the trial, or trigger violence in people's interpersonal relationships.

If people did not hand over their guns then authorities would legislate to suspend all firearm licenses on the island and the guns would be taken from residents, he said.

"It's going to be quite an emotional time for everyone concerned so this is to remove that increased risk, by ordering a handover of firearms."

The island's licensing system would enable police to target all the firearms that existed.

Mr Forbes said authorities were also boosting the number of police on the island from two to four.

Security was part of the reason, while the other part was the increased workload in relation to court duties.

More than 20 court staff and media representatives are expected on the island for the trial.

Herb Ford, head of the California-based Pitcairn Islands Study Centre, told the Dominion Post islanders had been told they had until September 7 to hand over their guns voluntarily.

He said there had not been a murder in which a firearm was used since the first few years after the mutinous sailors from the Bounty settled on the island in 1790.

One woman from the island said authorities were wrongly treating islanders as if they were trigger happy.

"We are being treated as if are a murdering, suicidal bunch of good for nothing sex-crazed cowboys," she told the Dominion Post.

- NZPA