PACIFIC Trials begin for seven men on Pitcairn Island accused of sex crimes

The island's population includes only 12 adult men.
PITCAIRN ISLAND (AP) -- A series of sex-abuse trials opened on Pitcairn Island, the isolated British territory in the Pacific that is home to descendants of the 18th-century Bounty mutineers. The first alleged victim said she was raped as a young girl by the island's mayor.
The unprecedented trials of seven men -- more than half the island's adult male population -- on 55 charges began Wednesday in the island's community hall, which has been converted into courts staffed by judges and lawyers from New Zealand but operating under British law.
Some of the island's 47 permanent residents accuse Britain of using the case, involving abuse allegations dating back up to 40 years, to depopulate Pitcairn. British authorities have denied that and said they are pumping millions of dollars into the island to improve life there.
There are only 12 adult men among the population, and those who are young and fit enough must crew a longboat to get essential supplies from passing freight and cruise ships. The island has no port, airstrip or paved roads.
Convictions for the seven men, who are to be tried separately in two courtrooms, could make it virtually impossible to man the boat, islanders claim.
Charges against mayor
Prosecutors called their highest-profile defendant first -- island mayor Steve Christian. He faces six charges of rape and four of indecent assault on four women from 1964 to 1975.
Christian, 53, pleaded innocent to the charges.
Public prosecutor Simon Moore alleged that Christian committed the offenses when he was between 13 and 24 years old.
In testimony given via a video link between the island and the northern New Zealand city of Auckland, more than 3,100 miles away, the first prosecution witness described how as a young girl of 11 or 12 years she was taunted on the island for being a "half-caste" and that she had been targeted and raped by Christian on four occasions.
The cases appear certain to draw new attention to the sexual habits of the tiny community that ekes out an existence on the rocky volcanic island midway between New Zealand and Peru.
Dea Birkett, a British journalist whose 1997 book "Serpent in Paradise" described her several months living on the island, has written: "Starved of real choices, Pitcairners develop relationships considered unacceptable elsewhere. Sisters share a husband. Teenage girls have affairs with older men."