15/04/03

Pitcairn Women Recant Accusations 

Claire Harvey

The Australian

EIGHT Pitcairn Island women who alleged they were sexually abused want to change their testimony, accusing police and prosecutors of "browbeating" and asking them to lie.

The claims will rock prosecutors' chances of convicting nine Pitcairn men charged with 64 counts of rape, sexual assault and gross indecency against women and girls dating back to the 1960s.

The women, most of whom now live in New Zealand, are only some of the alleged victims.

Police harassed and intimidated witnesses, according to one of the women, who wrote an anonymous letter which was pinned up on the island's community noticeboard last week.

"For more than three years Pitcairners on Pitcairn and abroad have been living under a shadow of guilt, fear and disgrace," the letter, signed with the name 'Fictions', said. British and New Zealand police "harassed" her, the woman wrote. "They started asking me humiliating and embarrassing questions about my past life, and being ignorant of my rights and not realising what I was getting myself into, I answered the questions as truthfully as I could," she wrote.

"Several months later I was again approached by (police) and they said they had insufficient evidence against one particular person and can I make up a false allegation against him."

The tiny Pacific island, with a population of about 45, was settled by rebel British sailor Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers after they overthrew William Bligh on HMS Bounty in 1789.

The women believe the prosecution is part of an attempt by the British Government, which rules Pitcairn, to "kill" the island, according to Herbert Ford, an academic and advocate for the islanders who directs the California-based Pitcairn Islands Study Center.

But a spokesman for Pitcairn Governor Richard Fell, who is also Britain's High Commissioner to New Zealand, dismissed the claim. "This is Herbert Ford's conspiracy theory," the spokesman said.."

The case first became public in 2000, when British policewoman Gail Cox was sent to Pitcairn for a two-month stint to train the island's local police officer.

Constable Cox returned to Britain with allegations about sexual offences, some reportedly relating to girls as young as three, and spent two years interviewing Pitcairn residents and ex-islanders.