ADJOURN SEX TRIALS, SAYS CHURCH


AUCKLAND - A leading member of the US-based Seventh Day Adventist Church called yesterday for the immediate adjournment of a series of sex trials on the remote British Pacific colony of Pitcairn Island.


The trials, in which seven men face 96 separate charges under Britain's Sexual Offences Act, start on Monday.


The church spokesman said British police officers who investigated the alleged crimes had acted improperly and that Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office had refused to study alternatives to the trials. -- AFP source

Stan:

This news item may or may not be true. It is totally not documented, and is without foundation. No name or source is cited, so it can not be checked. Who is the "leading member" of the SDA Chruch? We do not know as that person is not named.

I have spent the last 30 minutes attempting to obtain documentation. There is none. There is none on the cite you gave us. There is non on the Internet.

Is it true? Perhaps. But it is not documented. Without documentation we need to be critical of it.

One other point in regard to improper actions of British police:

That issue has been raised in court by the defendents. The court has denied the defendents claim, and has ordered the trial to go forward. Does the so-call leading member now raise claims that the defendents never raised? If so, why were they not previously raised? These so-called imporper actions are not even listed. We can not judge them for accuracy.

There was a name mentioned on a previous news release about a week earlier. I am out of town right now and will do more research when I have a dsl connections.

I would support this action, but what is missed, is that most aboriginal-type people, have some sort of effective court sytem within their organization, european style courts are not always the most effective. Some issues should be dealt with by the community, and I do realize that they do not always get it right, but neither does the western style of court system.

This is from today's Sydney Morning Herald. I have not seen the reports quoted above but I have not been following every link. There had been an SDA minister usually with a wife who was a nurse posted on Pitcairn for many years. A friend of mine returned from there about 2 years ago, quite sickened by all that had gone on. (Although he did not discuss details). I do not know whether he was replaced by another minister.


Pitcairn women speak out over sex trials
September 29, 2004

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As the start of a string of sex-abuse trials was delayed on Pitcairn for two days, a group of women today claimed that under-age sex was a tradition on this tiny Pacific island.

The women held a news conference and rallied behind the seven charged men, saying consensual sex for girls as young as 12 was part of island life.

"I knew what I was doing," said Meralda Warren, who admitted losing her virginity at young age.

"To me there has never been rape on the island that I know of," she said.

The woman claimed the cases have been blown out of proportion and even that the alleged victims now in New Zealand may have been coerced into agreeing to testify via video links.

Some accused authorities in London of trying to kill off the community on Pitcairn, a speck of volcanic rock midway between New Zealand and Peru and Britain's last dependent territory in the Pacific.

The accused men face dozens of sex charges, some dating back 40 years. They could be sentenced to lengthy prison terms if convicted in trials expected to last up to six weeks.

The trials, to be held under British law, had been scheduled to get under way today. However, the start was delayed until tomorrow (Wednesday), a spokesman said.

"I don't know if there's specifically any reason for it other than in the court's judgment the parties may not have been quite ready," said Bryan Nicholson, a spokesman for the British High Commission in Wellington.

Some islanders fear a guilty verdict could threaten their community's survival on the island.

The size and complexity of the case is unprecedented on Pitcairn. The arrival of three judges, prosecutors, defence lawyers and reporters has almost doubled the island's population.

Most witnesses are expected to give evidence via a video link from New Zealand, which is now home to many people who have left behind the isolated island life.

Just getting to Pitcairn, which has no port or landing strip for aircraft, is a major challenge. Once on the island, people get around using all-terrain quad bikes because the only roads are dirt tracks.

The Pitcairn Islands are a group of five rocky outcrops - only the largest of which is inhabited. Their combined area is 47 square kilometres. They are 14,885 kilometres from Britain.

Many in the tiny population are descended from the mutineers on the British navy ship HMS Bounty who arrived there in 1790.

They eke out a living by selling postage stamps to collectors and handicrafts to tourists on passing cruise liners.

Now the island is a hive of activity as lawyers set up the unusual court - run on British laws and staffed by New Zealanders.

The defendants had a chance to head off trials at a pre-trial hearing last week, but refused to plead guilty when offered the chance - a move that would have cut any sentence they might face.

Some islanders argue that if the men are convicted and imprisoned the tiny community will lose its ability to crew longboats that bring essential supplies to the island, threatening the population's existence.

At earlier hearings, defence lawyers argued that whatever ties Pitcairn had with Britain were severed when the mutineers burned and sank the Bounty soon after they arrived on the previously uninhabited island.

That argument was rejected, allowing the trials to go ahead.

The case started in 1999 when an islander complained to a visiting British policewoman that she had been sexually abused.

Since then, new laws including a child protection act have been passed and police and social workers have been sent to the island.

Australian Associated Press in Auckland reported that Pitcairn's governor Richard Pell today asked the New Zealand High Court to stop the release of a raft of sensitive documents on the sex abuse cases.

Fell, who is also the British High Commissioner to New Zealand, believed the publication of the documents ahead of the hearings could cause anxiety for the islanders.

AP/AAP

A LEADING member of the US-based Seventh Day Adventist Church called today for the immediate adjournment of a series of sex trials on the remote British Pacific colony of Pitcairn Island.

The trials, in which seven men face 96 separate charges under Britain's Sexual Offences Act, start Monday on Pitcairn, a 50-strong community founded in 1790 by Fletcher Christian, leader of the infamous Mutiny on HMS Bounty.

The Seventh Day Adventist Church has been the majority faith on the island since 1890 and its Pacific Union College in San Francisco hosts a Pitcairn Island Study Centre headed by former missionary Herbert Ford.

"There has been so much irregularity, so much seeming pre-agreement toward a given conclusion, so much that smacks of possible illegality demonstrated in documented form, that any trial conducted before these very serious matters are carefully studied and resolved would be a gross miscarriage of justice," Mr Ford said in a statement today.

He said British police officers who investigated the alleged crimes had acted improperly and that Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) had refused to study alternatives to the trials.

"The Pitcairn trial as presently being pursued, in addition to the possible incarcerating of individuals, has the potential to destroy an entire indigenous people group and in written form (the FCO) has said it doesn't matter if that happens," Mr Ford said.

"Already the United Kingdom's open-to-the-entire-world, dogged pursuit of a traditional destroying courtroom trial has wreaked irreparable harm to the fragile fabric of Pitcairn society."

Pitcairn Island Chief Justice Charles Blackie and two other judges, Jane Lovell-Smith and Russell Johnson - all New Zealand District Court or lower court judges - arrived this week on Pitcairn, a rocky, forest-clad five-square kilometre island 2160km south-east of Tahiti.

The seven accused face a variety of allegations stemming from a complaint laid in 1999 by a Pitcairn woman.

Pitcairn was uninhabited until Christian's mutiny on April 28, 1789, against Captain William Bligh, who was set adrift.

Eight mutineers along with six Tahitian men, 12 Tahitian women and a small girl then searched the South Seas for a haven, reaching uninhabited Pitcairn on January 15, 1790, where they remained undiscovered until 1808.

The Seventh Day Adventist Church was founded in New Hampshire, USA, in 1844. Its beliefs are similar to the Methodist and Baptist faiths.

The church claims around 14 million members worldwide with around 100,000 in the South Pacific.

Source

I found this too and was about to post it Stan - it was published in Melbourne but the original came from Auckland.

Now we have a name that we can check.

Let us say that it is true. At this time, I believe, correct me if I am wrong, Herb Ford is retired, and therefore can not be said to represent the SDA Chruch. HE is simply a well-known SDA author who has s pecialized in Pitcarin Island issues.

For those interested in the legal issues, the following URL will give you access to an interesting legal document:

www.lawschool.vuw.ac.nz/vuw/fca/law/files/nzjpil-Angelo-Townend-26Sep.pdf

Here is a recent post in the METCLAPH'S BLOG:

"Guilty Plea in Pitcarin Trial

Dennis Christian, a defendant in the Pitcairn Island sex abuse trials, has changed his plea from innocent to guilty. While commendable in and of itself, the decision knocks a huge hole in the arguments of some Pitcairn Islanders and their apologists that what went on was perfectly natural. If they had really believed that then why did they convict Ricky Quinn for such offences in 1999?
posted by Peter Metcalfe at 7:26 PM 0 comments"