Pitcairners make eleventh hour bid to stop trials

12.30pm

Seven Pitcairn men facing sexual assault charges have made an eleventh hour bid to stop their trials on the remote Pacific island.

Defence lawyers made an application claiming apparent judicial bias in the Pitcairn Supreme Court, a day before trials are due to begin on what is Britain's last dependent territory in the Pacific.

Seven men, half of the adult male population, will go on trial in the British dependency this week, charged with 96 counts of rape, sexual abuse and indecent assault dating back to the 1960s.


Pitcairn Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Blackie reserved his decision and was expected to rule on the application later today.

Radio New Zealand said the bias claim centred on a meeting between the Pitcairn chief justice and Baroness Scotland, the British minister responsible for overseas territories, in 2000.

The defence alleged bias because the meeting took place and alleged that Baroness Scotland was the driving force behind the initial investigation by Kent police of the sex abuse allegations.

Radio New Zealand reported the defence said Baroness Scotland pressed for a legal outcome and rejected the notion of any restorative justice process. That process involves mediation and the accused making reparations to the victims.

The prosecution said the defence application was "fanciful".

Justice Blackie had just been appointed to the Pitcairn Supreme Court and there was nothing out of the ordinary for him to meet the British minister responsible for the territory, the prosecution said.

They also said there was no evidence that Baroness Scotland was the driving force behind the initial police investigation, adding that the prosecution had been trying to offer restorative justice since the case began and none of the defendants had shown any indication of wanting to accept it.

- AAP