Taking a Stand

Summary

The Pitcairn Trials – Episode 7: "Taking a Stand" (January 23, 2025)

Podcast: The Pitcairn Trials
Host: Always True Crime
Theme: The high-stakes courtroom battle as survivors of childhood sexual abuse from the remote Pitcairn Island testify against powerful men in their isolated community, confronting entrenched denial, cultural defenses, and a fight that reverberates all the way to Britain’s Privy Council.

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Overview

This episode, "Taking a Stand," dives deep into the pivotal moments of the 2004 Pitcairn sexual abuse trials. Survivors like Glenda bravely share their testimonies after decades of silence, facing down both the accused and a community that had turned a blind eye or rationalized abuse as “cultural.” The episode also explores the aftermath: convictions handed down, celebrations cut with unresolved pain, and the legal battles escalating to Britain’s highest court.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Atmosphere and Division on Pitcairn During the Trials

• Hostility and Tension: Prosecutor Simon Moore describes a tense yet superficially civil environment ("no one ever shouted at us... they may have blanked us" – Simon Moore, 02:05).
• Community in Close Quarters: With legal teams, press, judges, and community members all together, day-to-day life carried on amid history-making court proceedings (Narrator, 02:14).

2. Testimony of Survivors and Emotional Fallout

• Glenda’s Testimony: Glenda, a survivor, recounts her abuse by Steve Christian and Len Brown. She describes the setting in the makeshift Auckland video-link room, “I think I felt as though I was on the island” (Glenda, 04:08).
• Cultural Denial: Other Pitcairn women did not deny the abuse happened, but rationalized it as culture—something Glenda vehemently refutes: “Raping a three-year-old. It’s not a culture” (Glenda, 05:19).
• Raw Details of Abuse: Graphic and distressing—Glenda recounts multiple attacks, including being raped as a teenager by community leaders, often in isolated spots while performing daily work (Narrator, 06:29 onwards).

3. Defense Approaches and Survivor Resilience

• Minimizing and Undermining: Defense strategy hinged on raising doubts about victims’ reliability, “It’s just too long ago” (Charles Cato, 15:53), and suggesting “promiscuity” on the island.
• Victim’s Response: Glenda’s eloquent pushback in court: “All those memories, God, I don’t need anybody to tell me what they are because I lived them...” (Glenda, 16:19-17:13). Her dissociation during testimony is depicted as real and affecting, both for her and court observers.

4. Trials' Outcomes and Immediate Aftermath

• Guilty Verdicts: Several community leaders are convicted—Steve Christian (mayor), Len Brown, Dave Brown, Terry Young, and Randy Christian. The group includes fathers, sons, and brothers from the island’s tightly interwoven families (Narrator, 25:11).
• Bittersweet Justice: Celebration among survivors countered by persistent denial among many on Pitcairn (Glenda, 27:46). Short sentences and ongoing appeals left feelings of incomplete justice.
• Personal Impact: Glenda recalls crying in disbelief on hearing the verdict: “I was crying disbelief that we actually won it...” (Glenda, 27:07).

5. Legal Battles Move to the Privy Council

• Grounds for Appeal: Defense claims laws used were not properly promulgated on Pitcairn; the maximum penalties were far higher than those locally known (Lord Hoffman & Charles Cato, 33:11-34:55).
• Sympathy, But Standing Firm: Lord Hoffman expresses some sympathy ("if you have a rule of law, it should be a law...that you understand" – Lord Hoffman, 33:51) but clarifies the core issue focused on legal technicalities—was British law validly applied?
• Underlying Tensions: The episode closes on the uncertainty left by these legal dissections, as the community remains divided and struggles with its past (Glenda, 35:43).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On denial as culture:
  “You can’t turn around and say, that’s culture. Raping a three-year-old. It’s not a culture.”
  — Glenda (Victim), [05:19]

• On invisible damage:
  “You could see the damage. You can’t see the damage of rape. You can’t deny a fire on Pitcairn, but you can deny rapes.”
  — Glenda (as cited by Narrator), [08:16]

• On reliving trauma:
  “Every single thing that happened to me on Pitcairn I’m reliving, which I’ve pushed to the back of my mind for a long, long time...I dare anybody to stand there in that court and tell me that I am a liar, because it bloody well happened to me exactly as I said it.”
  — Glenda (Victim), [16:19-17:13]

• On community division:
  “I don’t think that Pitcairn island has reckoned with its own history. There is a distinct rift in that community which still exists.”
  — Glenda (Victim), [35:43]

• On justice as recognition:
  “It meant the victims were believed...it was justice for them we knew they weren’t going to get...really long sentences, but it was just the fact that they were convicted.”
  — Sandy (Counselor), [27:32]

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Important Timestamps

• [01:40]: Content warning for graphic material and strong language.
• [02:00–03:18]: Environment and attitudes on island at trial start.
• [03:28–05:26]: Glenda and Sandy describe testifying from New Zealand.
• [06:15–09:36]: Glenda’s detailed account of abuse, courtroom confrontations.
• [13:07–13:35]: Metaphor of forced watermelon pollination as parallel to abuse.
• [16:19–17:13]: Glenda’s emotional rebuke to defense challenge.
• [17:54–18:04]: Sandy on the reality and power of dissociative memories.
• [23:09]: The island’s surreal cruise ship distraction on verdict eve.
• [25:11–27:28]: Verdicts, convictions, and survivors’ relief.
• [28:48–35:19]: Appeals to London’s Privy Council—legal technicalities, community unresolved.
• [35:43]: Glenda reflects on ongoing community rift.

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Tone and Style

The episode maintains an unflinching, sober tone, alternating between first-person survivor narratives and the cool, procedural voices of legal professionals. Short, candid statements amid raw, emotional testimony underscore the ongoing trauma and bravery of survivors, as well as the entrenched denial and legal complexities that remain.

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Conclusion

"Taking a Stand" stands as a pivotal moment in The Pitcairn Trials podcast series—it’s the hour where survivors are heard, abusers are held legally accountable, but where communal healing and total justice still seem distant. The legacy of these trials is presented as unfinished business: legal, cultural, and deeply personal.

Next episode: The series will focus on the aftermath and enduring effects of the trials on the fractured Pitcairn community.

Transcript

[Podcast Host]

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[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

All right, ladies.

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[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

A warning. This episode of the Pitcairn Trials contains graphic discussion of child sexual abuse and strong language. From the start,

[Simon Moore (Prosecutor)]

We were acknowledged by defendants and by most in the community.

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Not all.

[Simon Moore (Prosecutor)]

And there was a reasonably high level of hostility.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

September 2004. The Pitcairn trials are underway.

[Simon Moore (Prosecutor)]

I never saw it manifested in any way. No one ever shouted at us. No one ever abused us openly. They may have blanked us.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Simon Moore, the public prosecutor, his team, the defense, the judges, the press, they're all squeezed onto this island, in and amongst the community. They're there to examine.

[Simon Moore (Prosecutor)]

I did speak to some of the defendants. I certainly spoke in the course of the trials to Len Brown. Not about the trials, but for some curious reason, I think he trusted me. We might talk about other things. It's carving that sort of stuff.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Life was trying to continue as normal on this far flung volcanic outcrop of British rock way out in the wilds of the South Pacific. But decades of secrets were about to be very publicly outed.

[Simon Moore (Prosecutor)]

Other than a few of the core high profile defendants, I made it my job to acknowledge absolutely everyone I encountered on the island. And whether that was reciprocated or not was a matter for them.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

The court where the defendants were facing trial was on Pitcairn. Thousands of miles away in Auckland, women were preparing to give evidence via video link.

[Glenda (Victim)]

It was just like a hired room

[Sandy (Counselor)]

when it's like an industrial building. Yes. It was like a small college classroom.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Glenda, who had been raped and sexually assaulted as a child and teenager growing up on Pitcairn, had built a new happy life for herself miles away in England. But now here she was in New Zealand with her counsellor Sandy by her side, ready to testify.

[Glenda (Victim)]

You have a couple of desks, you had the screen in front of you and that was it.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

I mean, in a way it was probably good that it wasn't as intimidating as, as a court would be, but

[Glenda (Victim)]

to be quite honest, I think I felt as though I was on the island. Right, yeah.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

When you looked at that screen picture,

[Glenda (Victim)]

it was the lawyers on the other side.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Glenda and the other women were all in separate waiting rooms and you would

[Sandy (Counselor)]

occasionally catch a glimpse of someone you knew in the distance. But we were all kept apart very separately. And at that time, you didn't know who was going to give evidence for the case and who was going to give evidence against.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

In terms of other Pitcairn women, it's not like they were denying it happened, but they were denying that it was a bad thing.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

Oh, that's right. They were saying it was part of the culture.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

That's a hard response to try and process, I guess, because it's one thing to have someone say, no, I don't believe you, but then it's something else to have someone say, I accept that happened, but it's not a bad thing. I mean, how did that land with you?

[Glenda (Victim)]

Uncomfortably, yeah.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Glenda was up first, so you can't

[Glenda (Victim)]

turn around and say, that's culture. Raping a three year old. It's not a culture.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

This is the Pitcairn Trials, episode seven Taking a Stand.

[Simon Moore (Prosecutor)]

I remember Glenda particularly because her story was especially poignant.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Steve Christian, then the mayor of Pitcairn, was first in the dock wearing a Pitcairn T shirt and flip flops. He was facing 10 counts, six of rape, four of indecent assault. The first count of rape related to Glenda when she was between 11 and 12 and he was between 14 or 15.

[Glenda (Victim)]

Steve, right? Steve Christian, Yeah, yeah. He gang rape, abandoned trees.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

He had pushed her to the ground, raped her and encouraged others with him to do likewise. Laughing, Glenda told the court she managed to get free and when she got home, her mother saw her trying to dispose of her underwear. She asked, what happened. Glend replied, no, nothing. Liar, her mother replied. The second count, Glenda was 14 or 15 at the time. Steve Christian was then 16 or 17. He accosted her in a shed before church and raped her, telling her, quote, don't say anything, nobody's going to believe you. She was late for church and as punishment, her father beat her. The third and fourth counts of rape happened weeks later. Steve pulled Glenda onto his motorbike and took her off to an area known as the flatland. He pushed her to the ground and again raped her. The defence line was that all of this was a pack of lies. The argument that underage sex was part of the culture had very much formed by the wayside by the time they got into the courtroom. In cross examination, the defense asked Glenda, if this really happened, why didn't you tell your father he was a respected man in the community?

[Glenda (Victim)]

I did lose it through the trial. I did lose it.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

At one point, the defence lawyer also said, why didn't you report it to the authorities?

[Glenda (Victim)]

They were trying to prove that things did go to court.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Glenda could have reported it because there was a functioning justice system, the defense

[Glenda (Victim)]

argued, because they said, well, what about the fire that was started Broadly around

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

this time, Some youths on Pitcairn were charged for setting fire to trees. That incident was visual. The court transcript records Glenda saying in reply, quote, you could see the damage. You can't see the damage of rape. You can't deny a fire on Pitcairn, but you can deny rapes. There were two more counts of indecent assault that Steve Christian faced and two more counts of rape relating to a different woman who was 12 at the time. When Steve Christian was 21, Steve didn't take the stand. There wasn't even a police interview with him that could be quoted. So it was just denial. The Steve Christian trial was adjourned. So another case that Glenda was due to get evidence in could be opened while she was still in the stand. The case of Steve Christian's father in law, Len Brown. Len Brown was charged with two counts of raping Glenda when she was 18. When he was 46. This happened on consecutive days in her family's garden. The court heard again. Len Brand didn't take the stand and there was no police interview with him to refer to. So the only evidence was Glenda's testimony.

[Glenda (Victim)]

I don't know where I was and I. I just dissociated.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Glenda dissociated, much like we heard in episode four when she was recanting what Steve Christian did to her, reliving Len Brown's crimes in court. This happened again as all of those painful memories came back. Glenda begins to tell me about this in Sandy's living room during one of our interviews. It has been a long day of painful memories. So Sandy, who's sitting opposite the sofa Glenda and I are both on, takes the lead.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

She went into a story that I'd never heard about one of the abusers and the allotments and how this guy had followed. You mind me telling me?

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

One of Glenda's tasks as an 18 year old on Pitcairn was to tend to the inoculation or fertilization of her family's watermelon plants before heading off to school.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

The sun came on them and the flowers for the watermelons opened. She had to take the female flowers and the male flowers and make sure they got inoculated. So this was Glinda's job. But this guy who wanted to catch Glinda on her own, knew the order in which she would do it because of when the sun would come onto the flowers and open them.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

The morning sun would fall first on a place called Juliander Garden. So Glenda would start with the flowers there and then follow the path of the sun tending to the flowers as they opened, as the light fell on them, ending up finally at a place called the Hollow. This is where she was when Len Brown first attacked her. She was doing her work. The court heard when she sensed someone behind her. She turned and saw Len standing there. Remember, she was 18, he was 46. I'm going to do it. She remembers him telling her. What? She replied. Sex. He said. He dragged Glenda to his motorbike, told her to get on. She complied, frightened, and he took her on a short drive away. His strong and painful grip took her off the motorbike and Glenda remembers just freezing. I was too petrified to run. The court transcript quotes her as saying Len Brown put his leg behind her foot and he pushed her back over it. She fell to the ground. He forcibly removed her clothes and he raped her. Glenda could vividly remember the pain of the stones on her back. She told the court the next day again at the Hollow. Lem was there waiting for her, knowing that her work would mean she ended up there. As the sun fell on it, he grabbed her legs and pulled them from under her, throwing her to the ground, and again raped her. This time never saying a word.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

And so what Belinda was explaining in a dissociated manner was how she tried to do them in a different order so he wouldn't know where she was.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

In the days that followed, Glenda wouldn't wait for the sun to fall on the flowers, to open them so she could do her work. She raced to the plants before daylight got to them, pulling the flowers open herself, all to avoid Len.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

So she was forcing the flowers open? Yeah, to inoculate them, to protect herself. But it was a parallel.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Yeah.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

What was happening to Glenda because this chap was an older one.

[Glenda (Victim)]

Yeah, yeah, much older, yeah.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

But that was really powerful in the court. I felt it, yeah. Felt everybody was just glued.

[Simon Moore (Prosecutor)]

I just remember her evidence. Particularly what needs to be understood is that these trials, all of the judges and all of defence counsel, all of the prosecutors had heard evidence of this sort of general assault many, many, many times before. So it takes something really particular to strike you. And all of us, all of us will have memories of sexual cases where the evidence of a particular complainant has struck us as being. I'm trying to think of the right word, but no one could not have been affected by Glenda's evidence.

[Glenda (Victim)]

I can remember it, but I also can remember standing up and just loosing. It calm me down a bit, but I could. That didn't even help.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

It didn't take her out, the dissociation.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Sandy stroked Glenda's back, she says, while she was giving evidence.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

But I got told to withdraw my hand.

[Glenda (Victim)]

It's hard to describe. It was like a dream that you're there but it's just happening around you and you're standing back watching it. That's the only way I could describe it.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Did they? In the way that Peter rehearsed with you, Them getting angry with you and really cross examining you in a forceful way. Did they get testy with you, the

[Glenda (Victim)]

defence people that I. To be quite honest, I. I can't recall.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

They didn't do very much, actually.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Yeah.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

That's why I say that the fact that Glenda had dissociated and spoke about that bit of the watermelon flowers, I think had so much impact. It did in a way show Glenda's vulnerability, which maybe made them back off a bit. Yeah, you could tell it was kind of an unconscious. And she was replaying in her head.

[Glenda (Victim)]

Yeah.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

Something that actually happened.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

The defense did cross examine Glenda on her evidence.

[Charles Cato (Defense Lawyer)]

You know, it's just too long ago.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

No alternative scenarios were put forward by them. And Len Brand didn't give evidence. They just tried to undermine Glenda's credibility as a witness. They said there were inconsistencies in the details she had given in previous interviews as compared to what she was now telling the court. The judge noted in his judgment that Glenda protested this emotionally and eloquently.

[Glenda (Victim)]

I think I lost my temper at one stage.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

In the transcript, Glenda's quoted as saying to the defense, every single thing that happened to me on Pitcairn, I'm reliving, which I've pushed to the back of my mind for a long, long time. Things are coming out that I didn't realize I'd buried so deep, so long ago. She told them, all those memories, God, I don't need anybody to tell me what they are because I lived them. And I have been living them since I was three years old, right up until I left that godforsaken island to come and live in England, where I was saved from that lot on Pitcairn. So you can't sit there and tell me that what I've gone through is a pack of lies, because I'm telling you now that it's not. And I dare anybody to stand there in that court and tell me that I am a liar, because it bloody well happened to me exactly as I said it.

[Glenda (Victim)]

I said, wants to live on that godforsaken island, you know, and. Because that's what my mom used to say. Godforsaken island. And I don't know what it was about. I honestly don't, because, as I said, I was there, but I wasn't there. It's a funny feeling when you're in a situation like that, as you call it, dissociation. The words just come out, and I couldn't control what I'm actually saying, but it's the only way I could get my words out. Once I'm in that mood, I cannot stop.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

What did people say to you? Did they say, well done? Did they say, how is that they.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

Did I tell her what she's done?

[Glenda (Victim)]

Yeah.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

I mean, she was incredible, really. You have to experience it to be. You did experience.

[Glenda (Victim)]

Yeah.

[Sandy (Counselor)]

Earlier on. It's so powerful. That's why when People talk about false memories, I always argue. Unless you've worked with people who dissociate, you can't deny it.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Charles Cato was one of the defence lawyers.

[Charles Cato (Defense Lawyer)]

This was one of the nastier ones where he came upon a girl who was doing some vegetable garden. Not a young girl, but somebody probably, I would have thought from memory, something teenage. And the allegation was he raped her. And Len was just a nice old man who said very little and was pleased to go fishing. That was Len Brown. The judges seemed to like old Edinburgh, even the New Zealand trial judges. And yet his crime was amongst the most serious of them. I mean, Stephen Christian's occurred when he was a. Wouldn't be much more than a teenager from memory when he was on with a schoolgirl.

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[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

All right, ladies.

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[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

across the various trials, not just the ones involving Glenda. We can see from the court documents that the defence tried to portray the women as unreliable at best, liars at worst. In the case of Randy Christian, the son of Steve, grandson of Len, a woman said she was raped at the age of 10. When Randy was 20. She and her parents had visited Big Fence Steve's house for dinner. She fell asleep on the sofa, she said, waking up later to find a then 20 year old Randy raping her, pointing to affectionate letters. She'd later Written him. The defence called her, quote, a cold and cruel and vengeful liar who would stop at nothing to draw attention back to herself. A woman scorned. A woman now in her 20s, recounting what happened to her when she was 10.

[Charles Cato (Defense Lawyer)]

Being a defence counsel and looking for things, we felt some of the evidence was a bit suspect.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

What was the defence you were putting forward? Or were you? Or was it just about trying to pick holes in the prosecution case? I mean, like, what was the.

[Charles Cato (Defense Lawyer)]

Well, the defence was that these things basically didn't happen. Look, there may have been an error, promiscuity on the island. I don't know about that. We suspected that there was, you know, it's just too long ago, and as I say, I've done so many sexual trials anyway in my time that they all run into one another anyway.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Prosecutor Simon Moore.

[Simon Moore (Prosecutor)]

These are very difficult cases to defend. The difficult cause in these cases are whether or not a defendant should give evidence. And the other thing too is that obviously we couldn't have a jury. And so some of the tactics that defence can use with juries, such as criticising a complaint of the length of time it took for them to make a complaint or perhaps continuing to engage with their abuser, those are myths. And in New Zealand, judges are now required to direct juries that just because that may have happened doesn't mean that the complainant shouldn't be believed.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

After almost a month, the seven trials started to wrap up. The islanders on Pitcairn and the women now back at their homes scattered around the world, anxiously waited for the verdict.

[Glenda (Victim)]

I had this gut feeling that we'd win. I just had this gut feeling.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Just before Judgment Day, there was a brief distraction on Pitcairn in the shape of a visiting cruise ship arriving in Banty Bay. The islanders, waiting to hear how many of their number were to be convicted as rapists pedophiles or rapist pedophiles, entertained retired Americans who had come on the ship Clipper Odyssey. Wooden carvings were sold, fish was fried. It was also around this time prosecutor Simon Moore's birthday.

[Simon Moore (Prosecutor)]

The telephone system on Pitcairn then was all connected. We used to have them in New Zealand until sort of the 1950s, 1960s, I think they called them party lines. There was also, I think, a loudspeaker function, which I think was meant to be reserved for emergency, so that you would press the button and speak into the telephone so that the whole community would hear what was being said.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

A British police officer who was there for the trials Took the opportunity right before Judgment Day to pick up a telephone receiver, push the loudspeaker button and

[Simon Moore (Prosecutor)]

sing Happy Birthday, Simon.

[Charles Cato (Defense Lawyer)]

Happy Birthday.

[Simon Moore (Prosecutor)]

Which was a very lovely touch, but did not go down well with some of the members of the Pitkin community who were outraged.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Reports at the time say Steve Christian angrily got on the party line himself to denounce what had happened and insist that there was a police investigation. They soon all blew over, though, as minds returned to more serious, pressing matters. On 24 October, the men were brought back to the Pitcairn courthouse for the verdict. When did you actually hear of the verdict? Were you still in New Zealand when you got that news?

[Glenda (Victim)]

No, I was over here. I was back home, yeah.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Dennis Christian, the postman, had already pled guilty to his three counts, including sexually assaulting a 12 year old when he was 27. Jay Warren, the Pitcairn magistrate, was found not guilty on his one count of indecent assault. Dave Brown, Len's son, Steve's brother in law, had already pled guilty to three counts and was found guilty of another six, including unlawful intercourse with a 13 year old when he was 35. Terry Young was found guilty of seven counts, including raping a 12 year old when he was in his early 20s. And Randy Christian, Steve's son, Len's grandson, was found guilty of eight counts in total, including gagging and raping an 11 year old with his brother Sean, who would be tried at a later date. And Steve Christian, he was found not guilty on two counts of indecent assault against Glenda. But on the four counts of raping Glenda, he was found guilty. He was also found guilty of one of two rape counts relating to a girl who was 12 when he was 21. So Steve, his son, his brother in law were all found guilty, as was his father in law, Len Brown. Guilty on both counts of raping Glenda, that final act of Pitcairn violence on a girl who was just trying to tend to her family's crops, who, a year after the incident, would flee, never to return to the island. Guilty. It would have been me that would have run Glenda. I know Peter George from Kent. Police picked up the phone and called Glenda with the news.

[Glenda (Victim)]

I was crying disbelief that we actually won it and congratulating the two guys as well. This is. No, it's all down to use, you know, and congratulating Sandy for getting us through it, you know, but it was fantastic. It really was fantastic.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

It meant the victims were believed and

[Sandy (Counselor)]

it was justice for Them we knew they weren't going to get, you know,

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

really long sentences, but it was just the fact that they were convicted.

[Lord Hoffman (Privy Council Judge)]

It was the all important to us.

[Glenda (Victim)]

There was still a lot of denial from back home and saying, no, it's not true, you know, and everything else which still had to take in that they won't accept that this went on because the ones that were protesting as well, it happened to them, for goodness sake.

[Simon Moore (Prosecutor)]

So we had the trials and then we had to pull together submissions on sentence. The sentencings happened while we were still on the island. So there were two days set aside for the sentencings.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

The sentences were handed down but did not begin. The sentences announced in this decision are only proposed sentences.

[Glenda (Victim)]

Implementation depends on the outcome of the petition before the Privy Council in London.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Remember, the defendants had a final appeal challenging the legality of this whole trial. So convictions would only be entered and sentences only started if they lost that appeal.

[Simon Moore (Prosecutor)]

And in fact, after the last sentence was pronounced, we all got aboard the ship and headed back to New Zealand straight away. Straight away, immediately. We didn't hang around at all.

[Charles Cato (Defense Lawyer)]

This was all done on the basis that legality would be ultimately tested in the Privy Council at a later date. We had a few days left on the island before we had to go back on the boat to Tahiti. And I can remember leaving Pitcairn on the, you know, the big whaling boat. I've got a photograph to look. And Steve came out in a boat and an outboard motor and he drove right round our boat. He just drove around. There was a look of. He looked me straight in the eye and there was a look of, we're going to be fighting this sort of thing. He was never a man to be intimidated, Stevens, Christian, not by the British or anybody. That's the last I remember.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Did you say anything to him?

[Charles Cato (Defense Lawyer)]

Oh, he knew. He knew we'd fight to the last.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Could it be that the fear the Pitcairn Governor Martin Williams had all those years ago was coming true? That prosecutions would ultimately fail because of issues with the legality of the proceedings? The Defense Council and the representatives of the the Crown headed to the Pitcairn Court system's highest court of appeal to battle it out. A court which was the highest court for British Overseas Territories, the Privy Council Court in London.

[Lord Hoffman (Privy Council Judge)]

My name is Leonard Hoffman, Lord Hoffman, and I was the presiding judge at the hearing in the Privy Council.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Did you know about Pitcairn previously?

[Lord Hoffman (Privy Council Judge)]

Oh, yes, I knew about the Mutiny on the Bounty and Captain Bligh and All that. And in fact, as a child in the 40s, I used to collect stamps and there were always stamps from Pitcairn Islands. Among the many other little bits and pieces that the British Empire then comprised. The Privy Council is or was. No, I suppose it is what's left, the final court of appeal from the courts of what was then the British Empire. It's staffed by the same judges as sat at that time in the House of Lords, which was then the final court of appeal for the United Kingdom till 1947, I think it was the final court of appeal for Canada until sometime in the early 60s, it was the final court of appeal for Australia. It was still the final court to appeal for New Zealand when I was there.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

And it was to be where this whole Pitcairn issue was finally decided. Did the Pitcairn men have any hope? Lord Hoffman heard the case with two other judges, one of whom was Lord Hope.

[Lord Hoffman (Privy Council Judge)]

The Privy Council sat in those days in Downing street, and it involved quite an amusing journey from the House of Lords in an old Daimler motor car, driving up Whitehall and turning into the Downie street gates where we were allowed in and got off and went to number 11 Downing street, which was the place where the appeals are heard.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Ten days of hearings were scheduled where Paul Dacre, again, not that one, Charles Cato and the rest of the Pitcairn defendants team would argue their case, questioning the entire legal basis of. Of these criminal trials.

[Lord Hoffman (Privy Council Judge)]

By the time it got to us, it wasn't an appeal against conviction in the sense that they said, no, we were innocent, we didn't do any. The appeal to us was really on points of law that the law of rape hadn't really been introduced into Pitcairn Islands. And likewise, that was the sort of issue that came before us.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

The defence argued the British legislation was invalid and that bringing prosecutions under it was an abusive process.

[Lord Hoffman (Privy Council Judge)]

One question was, how had Pitcairn become established? Was it a conquest which might lead to a different set of rules, or was it settled? You then have to explore how the legal system, if any, was developed and what was the responsibility of the colonial power which was looking after this island, in promulgating the laws they were supposed to know about.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Part of the issue was that they were suggesting was that there wasn't a copy of the Sexual Offences act that they could go and look at, either physically or because back then, you know, Internet wouldn't have allowed them to see it.

[Lord Hoffman (Privy Council Judge)]

I did have sympathy with that, because it did seem to me that if you have a rule of law, it should be a law, a rule of law that is fair to you and the law law that you understand. And I was really quite exercised by that.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

Charles Cato helped argue the case for the defence.

[Charles Cato (Defense Lawyer)]

When the law is promulgated, it gives advance notice not only to the inhabitants of the location as to what the crimes or offenses are, it also lays down what the penalties are. These men had been dealing with ordinance where the only sexual offence was carnal knowledge of a girl under 16, three months imprisonment.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

But many of the men on Pitcairn were Prosecuted under the 1956 English sexual offences act, which carried sentences of up to life imprisonment.

[Charles Cato (Defense Lawyer)]

Now, the Terence factor is an important aspect of promulgating the crime. If you don't do that, then these men didn't have the equality of justice that an Englishman would have had.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

So are you suggesting that because the law wasn't properly promulgated in Pitcairn, it allowed a situation to arise where men did commit these crimes?

[Charles Cato (Defense Lawyer)]

If they did do it, they obviously thought there was no law, and I'm sure that that may have contributed to any actual sexual promiscuity.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

I don't know promiscuity. Six of the men had been found guilty by a criminal court of sexual crimes, many against children, some of them violently. But was all of that about to be undone by an argument about ordinances and statutes in a court in Downing Street? And what effect has all of this had on the community?

[Glenda (Victim)]

I don't think that Pitcairn island has reckoned with its own history. There is a distinct rift in that community which still exists.

[Narrator (Luke Jones)]

That's next time on the Pitcairn Trials, the aftermath. The Pitcairn Trials were an audio always production. The series was presented by me, Luke Jones, produced by Lucy Ditchmont. Our assistant producer was Mansi Vithlani, sound design by Craig Edmundson. And the executive producer is Joe Meek. If you've been affected by anything in this story and would like to speak to somebody, there is a list and links to organizations that can offer help and advice. On our show page,

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