Pitcairn mayor admits under-age sex

By KATHY MARKS on Pitcairn Island

The self-confident, swaggering figure that is Steve Christian, mayor of Pitcairn Island, vanished for one brief hour yesterday. Instead the Pitcairn Supreme Court saw a brittle and defensive man who, under police questioning, admitted having sex with four under-age girls.

Christian, 53, will not take the witness stand in his trial on six counts of rape and four of indecent assault. So the interview, conducted in New Zealand in 2000 and played to the court in Adamstown, made gripping viewing.

The mayor denied allegations he "broke in" four local girls, raping them when they were in their early teens or younger. A fifth girl later came forward to accuse him of raping her in a similar fashion.

Christian's stock reply to most questions from English detectives was "no comment". He could not recall the incidents although he did remember having sex with the girls and was certain they had consented.

Christian, like many of Pitcairn's 47 inhabitants, claims direct descent from the HMS Bounty mutineers, and is one of seven local men charged with a total of 55 sexual offences against children. An influential figure on the island since his teens, he allegedly set the tone for widespread sexual abuse of young girls dating back 40 years.

Only one of the four named in the video has given evidence at his trial. The rest withdrew from the case before it came to court, as did other women who made allegations against him and numerous other men when the investigation began four years ago.

Christian, interviewed at Auckland Central police station, was asked about one woman, who claims she was 13 when he raped her.

Christian, who was 19 or 20 at the time of the alleged rape, agreed it "could be the case" that he had sex with one girl when she was 13 and another when she was 15. He admitted two others were under 16.