Pitcairn sex charges detailed
Nine men from the Pacific island of Pitcairn accused of sex crimes face charges of more than 60 offences, the presiding magistrate revealed on Friday.
The charges comprise 21 for rape, 41 for indecent assault - a number of which involved young teenage girls - and two of gross indecency with a child under 14.
They relate to incidents that occurred up to 40 years ago, magistrate Gray Cameron said during a pre-trial hearing.
Seven of the accused still live on Pitcairn. Six of the defendants, who appeared at the hearing, were granted bail. All seven were ordered to reappear for a further hearing at Adamstown on the island on 23 May.
The court also issued arrest warrants for two men now living outside the island.
The charges are the culmination of an inquiry by British and New Zealand police which began in early 2000 into allegations of sexual abuse on the 45-man island, which is administered by the UK.
Mr Cameron decided to maintain a suppression order on the men's names to guard against the possibility of identifying the women who had made the complaints.
The magistrate also ordered a hearing be held in the New Zealand city of Auckland at the end of April to review the suppression order and consider whether the court has proper jurisdiction over the case.
The full trial is likely to be held in Auckland because, although it is 5,000 kilometres (3,200 miles) away, many of the people involved in the trial now live in the city, and because Pitcairn does not have the necessary infrastructure for a trial of its own.
Pitcairn islanders have warned that if the trial does go ahead, it could spell the end of their community.
Pitcairn has only a handful of adult males - the minimum, the islanders say, needed to man the boats which the island relies upon for supplies.
The island is mostly populated by descendants of the Bounty mutineers and the accompanying Polynesians, who landed on the island in 1790, a year after the mutiny.
