The Aftermath

Summary

The Pitcairn Trials – Episode 8: The Aftermath

Host: Luke Jones
Guests: Lord Hoffman, Rhiannon Adam, Simon Moore, Iona Thomas
Release Date: January 30, 2025

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Overview

Episode 8, “The Aftermath,” brings the story of the Pitcairn Island abuse scandal to a close, examining the legal appeals that followed the initial convictions, exploring the sentences handed out, and scrutinizing what life has looked like on the island since. Host Luke Jones consults judges, survivors, outside observers, and officials to interrogate the effectiveness—and the limits—of legal and cultural reforms in a community forever scarred by decades of hidden abuse.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Final Legal Battle – The Privy Council Appeals

[02:42–07:30]

• The Appeals: In 2006, the men convicted in the 2004 trials argued their final appeal in London before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. They protested that Pitcairn had never been under UK sovereignty and that English sexual offense laws weren’t adequately incorporated into Pitcairn law.
• Judge’s Perspective: Lord Hoffman (one of the presiding judges) reflects with frankness and a touch of cynicism on these appeals, describing them as “totally uninteresting” from a legal standpoint and dismissing the idea that ignorance of the law was plausible on an island of 43 inhabitants:

  “People knew on Pitcairn perfectly well that it wasn’t lawful to rape people. That didn’t seem to me to be a very strong point.” — Lord Hoffman (05:13)

• Judicial Dissonance: Lord Hope, a fellow judge, was far more invested in teasing out the historical and legal intricacies. The panel ultimately upheld the convictions together.

2. Sentencing and Its Unusual Challenges

[08:20–13:02]

• Sentences Handed Down: Sentences (including home detention, prison terms, and community work) were tempered by the unique size and interdependence of the Pitcairn population:
  • Len Brown: 2 years prison, later home detention due to age/assessment as no longer a threat
  • Steve Christian: 3 years, released for island work duties
  • Randy Christian: 6 years, noted as a serial violent offender
  • Terry Young: 5 years for frequent rape over years
  • Dave Brown: 400 hours’ community work
  • Dennis Christian: 300 hours’ community work
• Community Dynamics: The need for practicality on such a small island meant offenders sometimes remained in key roles, and house arrest or work release was common even for serious crimes.
• Untried Offender: The teacher, Albert Reeves, charged with the most severe abuse, never stood trial due to “age and ill health.” This deeply disappointed survivors:

  “Psychologically, he did a lot of damage to me.” — Glenda (via Rhiannon Adam) (12:04)

3. Ongoing Cases and the End of Sentences

[13:02–14:36]

• Two men living off-island (Sean Christian and Brian Young) faced trial later in Auckland, both were found guilty and imprisoned.
• By April 2009, all convicted men had completed their sentences, and the island’s prison was empty.

4. Pitcairn After the Trials: Truth, Reconciliation, and Community Rift

[14:36–23:54]

• Rhiannon Adam’s Immersion: Artist/photographer Rhiannon Adam recounts her 3-month stay in 2015 to document post-trial Pitcairn. She found little real reckoning with the community’s past:

  “Truth and reconciliation—nonexistent is what I’ll say about that. I don’t think Pitcairn Island has reckoned with its own history.” — Rhiannon Adam (15:12)

• Daily Life: Adam describes the fleeting façade of goodwill for tourists, which quickly dropped after their departure, revealing insularity and suspicion.
• Personal Danger and Harassment: Adam shares powerful, unsettling vignettes:
  • Men repeatedly entering her room at night; witnesses community pressure on a particular man to “get the girl.”
  • She describes feeling constant tension, balancing the dangers of reporting abuse with the risks of isolation and retaliation.

    “Do I report this and put myself at more risk ... or do I sort of save myself, oddly, through just remaining quiet?” — Rhiannon Adam (21:17)

  • Adam filed a police report just before leaving, and recounts community shunning and systemic issues with reporting crime in a place where everyone is interconnected.

5. Administrative and Social Reforms

[23:54–32:27]

• Guardrails for Safety: There is now a resident police officer, social workers, a British administrator, and child safeguarding policies.
• Limited Progress: Adam and Jones discuss how reforms—like lists of “safe adults”—have made life for children or women seeking help socially isolating, rather than supportive and protective.
• Community Reconcilation: Iona Thomas, the British Governor of Pitcairn, speaks to the “journey” of addressing toxic patriarchy and the unveiling of a monument dedicated to acknowledging the community’s pain.

6. Notable Quotes on (Lack of) Remorse and Accountability

[33:14–34:11]

• Luke Jones questions the wording on Pitcairn’s reconciliation monument:

  “It says, ‘to say we’re sorry does not seek punishment or blame. It doesn’t say they were right and we were wrong, just that we have learned and understand the errors of our ways.’ That doesn’t sound like a full acceptance of the wrong that happened in the past, does it really?” (33:14)

• Thomas stands by the community’s chosen wording, calling reconciliation “a process rather than an event.”

7. New Scandals and The Persistent Shadow

[26:04–27:49]

• Even after the trials, child safeguarding officials themselves faced criminal convictions: Mike Warren, mayor and former safeguarding worker, was found guilty in 2016 for possession of child sexual abuse imagery, and in 2021 for indecent exposure.
• Notably, Warren’s case was adjudicated in part by previously convicted rapists, raising fundamental issues over impartiality and community reform.

8. Life Goes On: The Island Today

[28:16–32:12]

• Population now stands at just 37 and survival depends on significant UK funding (about £140,000 per resident annually).
• There is now a science centre and marine protection initiatives, aiming to attract researchers and outsiders.
• Hostile attitudes persist; efforts at creating space for reporting, healing, and reconciliation remain incomplete.

9. Survivor Voices and Enduring Complications

[35:12–40:49]

• Adam recounts her own awkward, sometimes dangerous experiences and reflects on both the inability to fully process what happened and the enduring fondness many survivors hold for their home:

  “I can’t stop loving the place. Even though what happened to me, it’s my home and you can’t take the Pitkin out of me.” — Glenda (40:34)

• Adam’s “Pitcairn souvenir” is a gold cast of a nail from HMS Bounty, which she wears as a “survivor’s ring”—a symbol of endurance.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On legal implausibility of ignorance:
  “That isn’t a legal principle that you must have access to the law in prison...people knew on Pitcairn perfectly well that it wasn't lawful to rape people.”
  — Lord Hoffman (05:13)

• On failed reconciliation:
  “Truth and reconciliation—nonexistent is what I’ll say about that. I don’t think that Pitcairn Island has reckoned with its own history.”
  — Rhiannon Adam (15:12)

• On the risks of reporting:
  “If you want to make a report on Pitcairn Island, you are reporting a crime to someone who is related to the perpetrator. Word gets around very quickly...”
  — Rhiannon Adam (23:15)

• On monument’s wording:
  “To say we’re sorry does not seek punishment or blame. It doesn’t say they were right and we were wrong, just that we have learned and understand the errors of our ways.”
  — (Monument, quoted by Luke Jones, 33:14)

• On survivor’s complicated love for Pitcairn:
  “I can’t stop loving the place. Even though what happened to me, it’s my home and you can’t take the Pitkin out of me.”
  — Glenda (40:34)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:42] The appeals to the Privy Council – Lord Hoffman’s account
• [05:13] Dismissal of access to law argument
• [07:30] Privy Council decision
• [08:20] Sentencing and community considerations – Simon Moore
• [13:02] Trials and sentences for men living off-island
• [14:36] Rhiannon Adam’s account of the island post-trials
• [17:59] Harassment and Adam’s safety concerns
• [19:01] Child safeguarding and isolation
• [23:15] Reporting a crime in an incestuous, small community
• [26:04] Mike Warren’s conviction and ongoing criminality among town officials
• [27:49] Pitcairn’s fragile population and existential uncertainty
• [30:15] Marine environment and research attraction strategies – Iona Thomas
• [33:14] The monument and the limits of community accountability
• [35:12] Adam’s personal experiences and the “survivor’s ring”
• [40:34] Glenda’s enduring connection to Pitcairn

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Tone and Style Notes

Throughout the episode, the tone is direct and unflinching—both in confronting the horror of the original crimes and in recognizing the ambiguity, resistance, and incomplete healing in their aftermath. Rhiannon Adam’s testimony brings personal emotion and immediacy; Lord Hoffman’s responses are curt and almost dismissive; the host, Luke Jones, guides with a balance of empathy and journalistic detachment.

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Conclusion

“The Aftermath” leaves listeners with an unsettled sense of a community unable or unwilling to fully reckon with its legacy. Legal justice occurred in form, if not always function, but the deeper work of cultural change and healing remains unfinished. Pitcairn, as one guest remarks, simply “continues to exist.”

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If you have been affected by anything heard in this story, please refer to the show page for support organizations.

Transcript

[Advertiser/Host]

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[Luke Jones]

ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com a warning this episode of the Pitcairn Trials contains graphic discussion of child sexual abuse and strong language from the start. I don't know whether this shows me in any positive light or not, but one of my greatest possession from Pitcairn

[Lord Hoffman]

is a beautifully carved Pitcairn longboat.

[Luke Jones]

I asked Len to carve it for

[Lord Hoffman]

me and he was a man eventually convicted of two charges of child rape. But that long boat with his name

[Luke Jones]

on it sits on a shelf in my lounge. Do you explain that to guests?

[Lord Hoffman]

I'll try not to.

[Luke Jones]

It's 2006. The Pitcairn trials were now in London. The six men, including the woodcarver Len, had been found guilty at criminal trials on the island in 2004, but two years on their sentences were still hanging over them as they argued their final appeal. Pitcairn wasn't under UK sovereignty, they protested, and English law had not been properly incorporated into their volcanic rock of a home far in the South Pacific. What was the point of law which they were arguing?

[Lord Hoffman]

Oh, there were many points of law and you'll find them all in the judgment that I wrote one after another, including the fact that Pitcairn had never been a British colony, which from my childhood stamp collecting days rather surprised me.

[Luke Jones]

The hearing was before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the highest court for British overseas territories. They'd swapped Pitcairn's Hill of Difficulty for London's Downing Street. Would the convictions actually stand? Could these painful years of hard work be for nothing? And what has happened on the island in the years since? This is the Pitcairn trials. Episode 8 the aftermath was this an unusual case by the standards of what you were used to dealing with in that court?

[Lord Hoffman]

Obviously it had several extremely unusual features.

[Luke Jones]

Lord Hoffman was one of five British judges examining the various points of law. The six would be Pitcairn convicts wanted

[Lord Hoffman]

to argue alleged points of law which would never have occurred to me and really shouldn't have occurred to them either. The main one, as far as I can make out from having reread now, my judgment is that the law of rape, et cetera, had not been made public in Pitcairn in the way that, for example, in the uk, if you felt so inclined, you could go around to a library and you could possibly find a copy of the Sexual Offences Act 1956, and if you felt like reading it, you'd be able to do so. Well, that was not possible in Pitcairn. There wasn't a copy on the island. And so they said, well, that meant it couldn't be the Law Island. And that struck us as being rather implausible.

[Luke Jones]

That isn't a legal principle that you must have access to the law in prison.

[Lord Hoffman]

Legal principle that you must have access to law. You can't have secret laws, but it depends how you know how far you meant. If you'd really exerted yourself in the Pitcairn, no doubt you could have communicated to somewhere or other where they would have sent you a copy. So it was no secret about it. And indeed it was, I think, found by the lower courts that people knew on Pitcairn perfectly well that it wasn't lawful to rape people. That didn't seem to me to be a very strong point.

[Luke Jones]

Yes, and that seems like a very clear cut decision for you to make on that point. I wonder, on the other point of them arguing we were never a British colony, how do you even begin teasing out the answer to that?

[Lord Hoffman]

They came over to London, they used New Zealand lawyers who represented them, and they came over to London and said they wanted a hearing of two weeks and, well, we've got other things to do. And so I said, well, why do you want two weeks? Well, they were going to tell us the whole of the history of Pitcairn Islands with illustrations. And I said, well, we're not really terribly interested in the whole history of Pitcairn Islands, because it's a rule of English constitutional law that it's for the Crown to say what are the territories of the Crown.

[Luke Jones]

Charles Cato was again one of the defence lawyers representing the Pitcairn men. He was shocked as Hoffman came in and dismissed all the documents and screens they had to display their arguments on. Hoffman came straight in and he pushed

[Lord Hoffman]

the display monitors, pushed them out of the way.

[Luke Jones]

What are these things for? And it was the nastiest introduction. Lord Hoffman quickly trotted through matters and. But his colleague, Lord Hope, wanted to hear them out.

[Lord Hoffman]

I think Lord Hoffman didn't really find it very difficult. He just thought, this is obviously criminal and the 1956 act applies and that's it. That's it. It's a totally uninteresting case which raises no issues of any interest at all. I thought that was quite wrong, really, because I wanted to analyze it and be satisfied in myself that the position of the prosecutor was sound and therefore the convictions should stand and the sentences should as well.

[Luke Jones]

They debated the matter. Lord Hope went through all the historical ins and outs and legal acrobatics that Lord Hoffman didn't want to bother with. But in the end they were in agreement. I will go to my maker and

[Lord Hoffman]

the first point I will probably tell

[Luke Jones]

him is it wasn't a very good judgment of the Privy Councils. That was it done then. Final appeal over. The convictions were entered and the sentences that had been handed down in 2004 in Pitcairn's makeshift courthouse could begin. We hug each other, Glenda and her

[Rhiannon Adam]

counsellor Sandy, you know, and rejoice together.

[Luke Jones]

The relief isn't what you expect it to be, is it? It takes a while to. To filter through and there were all sorts of things, like they'd built a prison on the island and then most of the men eventually got.

[Rhiannon Adam]

Got in there, but that got into.

[Luke Jones]

On house arrest and so it was

[Rhiannon Adam]

all a bit bittersweet. In some ways it was, wasn't it?

[Luke Jones]

It was bittersweet. The way in which we approached sentencing in this case was very much informed by what we understood to be the community needs. Simon Moore, then the public prosecutor, but also recognizing that although English law applied to sentencing tariffs, what might work for a population of 65 million is quite different from a population of 43. We just needed to temper the sentencing tariffs down to something which was going to be realistic. Len Brown was sentenced to two years in prison for those two rape convictions against Glenda. He had disgraced himself, the judge told him, noting that his family had also disowned a relation for testifying in one of the other cases. But he was old and deemed no longer a threat, they said, so he was allowed to apply for home detention, which was granted. The defence submissions for the sentencing of Steve Christian included references from Pit Kerners past and present, lauding his leadership and his skills. He drove the tractor. He was the only one who could perform X rays, the defence pointed out. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but was allowed to be released from custody to undertake island work as needed. Steve's son Randy, a violent and serial child rapist described by his counsel as heir apparent to the leadership of the community, was sentenced to six years in prison. Terry Young, who had indecently assaulted children and raped one girl in particular every week when she was between the ages of 12 and 15, was sentenced to five years in prison. Dave Brown, who was guilty of indecent assaults of children, including unlawful intercourse, was sentenced to 400 hours of community work. And Dennis Christian, the postman who had pled guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse and the sexual assault of a child, was sentenced to 300 hours of community work. There was, of course, one man in particular who never faced the courts. The other bittersweet bit was that the teacher that did most abuse in your teenage years got out of coming to court because of age and ill health. Glenda's former teacher, Albert Reeves, was not a native Pitcairner, but someone who came for a short stint to run the school. As Glenda explained earlier in the series, he sexually assaulted and tormented her as a schoolgirl. He was charged along with the rest of the men, but by 2007, he was deemed unfit to stand trial. Too unwell. So he never did. And that was a very big disappointment to you?

[Rhiannon Adam]

A disappointment, yes, because he. Psychologically, he did a lot of damage to me.

[Luke Jones]

There are still lots of people in this world who have got, obviously not a story like yours, but maybe something Similar happened to them. What would you say to a person like that? What would your advice be?

[Rhiannon Adam]

My advice would be to find a good. What you call yourselves?

[Luke Jones]

Therapist.

[Rhiannon Adam]

Therapist.

[Luke Jones]

Or bloody call Sandy.

[Rhiannon Adam]

Yeah, calls. Call Sandy. No, honestly, find. Get yourself a bloody good therapist. They'll talk you through it. They'll go through it with you and keep on, you know, be strong. You are, you know, telling the truth. You know, it happened to you. That's a fact.

[Luke Jones]

The other two Pitcairn men who were charged who were living off the island at this point, Sean Christian and Brian Young, were finally tried in January 2007 in Auckland. Sean was found guilty of two charges of rape and one of aiding and abetting a rape. One of the ones his brother Randy was found guilty of. And Brian Young was found guilty of six charges of rape and one of indecent assault. One of the women was five years old when he started abusing her. Another was just nine. Both were sentenced to prison on Pitcairn. But by April 2009, that new prison, which the island's men had helped to build, was empty. Everyone's time behind bars had been served. Now, this perhaps should be where our story ends. The abuse that was hidden for decades and decades after many years of hard work was brought to a court, prosecuted in the open and having had everything thrown at it, Privy council appeals and the rest still stood. But what do you do with the community that allowed that to happen? Who hid it, or at the very least turned a blind eye to it? Can it reform? There's a visiting police officer stationed on Pitcairn now, a social worker, an on Ireland British government official. There's a child safeguarding strategy. Has any of that worked, though?

[Rhiannon Adam]

My name is Rhiannon Adam and I'm a photographer and artist and I spent three months of my life on Pitican island in 2015.

[Luke Jones]

Rhiannon spent years on boats as a child, sailing with her father. He even bought her a book about the muting on the Bounty to try and enthuse her. In 2015, she knew about what had happened on the island, what had been uncovered in the trials, and as a photographer, she wanted to see what had been left in its wake. They couldn't just be like the pretty landscapes most other photographers came back with. What about the people?

[Rhiannon Adam]

What can I say about that? Well, truth and reconciliation non existent is what I'll say about that. I don't think that Pitcairn island has reckoned with its own history. I don't think that the islanders feel happy with their lives and the way that things have moved forward. There is a distinct rift in that community which still exists.

[Luke Jones]

How did you feel on the island in terms of your own safety? You're on a place where there are quite a lot of convicted sex offenders.

[Rhiannon Adam]

Yeah, it is, but sometimes it's better the devil you know. I had perhaps been naive in one sense. I had thought Pitcairn islanders might really want to set the record straight and to treat me really well and to not put a foot wrong, because this was their great PR opportunity to tell a different story. So I had thought that any normal person who had been convicted of something awful or had been associated with something awful would be so desperate to seize the opportunity to show their best side. So my actual fear about going to Petkinand is that I wouldn't see the true side of it, because I thought that what was going to happen was that they would be so desperate to show how far they had come and how well they were functioning that I would just end up seeing this Disney version. And I was very surprised to discover that that was not the case at all.

[Luke Jones]

The ship that Rhiannon arrived on for her three month stay floated off the island for a few days, allowing the tourists on board to visit the island and briefly explore.

[Rhiannon Adam]

And so, for that little brief chink of time, the island is on its absolute best behavior, because these are true outsiders. So everyone is doing public dinners and going out on fishing trips and these big shows of camaraderie. And then the tourists, the true tourists, leave, and me with the business visa remains. And it's as though everyone just was willing to let their belly flop out and relax after that point. And so it was like an immediate, like, gosh, you know, we can let

[Luke Jones]

go of the farce, we're off parade.

[Rhiannon Adam]

Yeah, and that's. And I witnessed that. And twice because I saw that, you know. Well, actually more than twice because I saw it when. When the cruise ship would arrive and everyone would behave in a certain way. And I just thought, wow, I wish you could have seen what I had seen for the last three months.

[Luke Jones]

With her camera, microphone, and plenty of questions, Rhiannon didn't get the warmest welcome. She says there were even arguments, like

[Rhiannon Adam]

me ending up crying in the square because I was trying to help decorate for Anzac Day and I was told that people like me were not welcome. There was a lot of that kind of suspicion. And also, you know, I had men coming into my bedroom window at night and that kind of thing. I ended up making A police report. So, yeah, you asked me about my own safety and yeah, it wasn't great.

[Luke Jones]

Do you mind me asking, when you say men coming through your window, I mean, what does that mean?

[Rhiannon Adam]

So first I was staying with Steven, Olive Christian and Big Fence. The house is a long corridor which has rooms going off it to the left and right. And there were two entrances, one at either end of this very long corridor.

[Luke Jones]

There aren't hotels per se on Pitcairn, so many of the Pitcairns rent their rooms as guest houses, such as Steve Christian's home, Big Fence.

[Rhiannon Adam]

There's no locks on Pitcairn Island. People just wander in all the time. So I'm staying in one of the rooms and you know, at one point I am there and there's like a naked man in my bedroom. And then so I decided to move house. So when I thought, okay, I'm gonna move house and I'm going to go to the house with the one child,

[Luke Jones]

a safe option, she thought, because new child safeguarding rules, which were brought in after the trials, meant that only so called safe adults who were on a list could be allowed near them.

[Rhiannon Adam]

So if Pitkin island is a tiny lump of rock in the middle of the ocean and you are that child living on that one lump of rock in complete isolation with no other children around, and then you, you can't associate with your neighbors because of fear of the risk. I mean, is a prison to an extreme.

[Luke Jones]

But you thought having been in Big Fence and had these men come in, that's a safe place to go to the child's house.

[Rhiannon Adam]

Not to use her in this way particularly, but almost as a human shield. So I was given a unit that was just, you know, outside. And it was very nice, it was very well cared for. And one night, you know, the power goes off at 10pm, the island engineers switch off the generator for the island. And so that was always kind of my cutoff time to get into bed. Okay, well, that's the day ended. People rise early and go to bed early. And I'm asleep and I hear this. What is that? I kind of wake up with a start. I look around and I can't see anything. So I just shrug it off and try and get back to sleep. And then I hear it again. Then I see the curtains, these kind of net curtains billowing above my head and this limbs trying to come through. And it had been the window being slid to one side and someone trying to climb into my bedroom window. And of course I turned around and I said, what the hell are you doing? And the man said, oh, well, I wasn't expecting the bed to be on this side of the room. Last time it was on the other side of the room. And I thought, how many times have you done this?

[Luke Jones]

Oh, I'm so sorry. That sounds awful.

[Rhiannon Adam]

That was. And, you know, then you end up with a very, very, very particular understanding of what it's like as a woman on Pitkin island. Because I found myself in this position where this was happening and the. This was escalating. A lot of the island was teasing this particular man about why he couldn't get the girl. You know, it felt like the whole community was pulling ranks. They wanted me to, I don't know, stay, have children, I don't know, be. Help repopulate Pitkin Island. I don't know what the theory was.

[Luke Jones]

This the same guy who would come into your room in. In big fence. Yeah.

[Rhiannon Adam]

So there was a lot of pressure on. On him, which I'm not ignoring, but it's very difficult. Do I report this and put myself at more risk? Isolate myself from the community completely, become Persona non grata, but safeguard in some ways any woman that comes here in future? Or do I sort of save myself, oddly, through just remaining quiet? And you have to kind of weigh this up because I was only too conscious that it would be very easy for me to go on a walk and casually slip. And so you make certain judgments of how much are you willing to tolerate and how safe you feel because it's so easy for you just to go on a little wander. Oh, where did we see Rhiannon? Oh, she was wandering up by Christian's cave. Oh. Oh, dear. She slipped and fell. If you look at the map of Pitkin island, half of the place names are names laden with tragedy that refer to accidents that have happened and people have fallen off cliffs and who knows if they've fallen off the cliff or been pushed or just. Just.

[Luke Jones]

Yeah.

[Rhiannon Adam]

Taking on a little wander.

[Advertiser/Host]

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[Luke Jones]

Rhiannon waited before reporting the incident to the police. There was the official police officer stationed on the island now. But Rhiannon was worried about the Islander community police officer that they worked in conjunction with.

[Rhiannon Adam]

The police officer will only take decisions in Kind of collaboration with a community police officer and so they work together to. So if you want to make a report on Pitcairn island, you are reporting a crime to someone who is related to the perpetrator. Word gets around very quickly. The police station is on the main road, pretty much next to big fence. If you park your quad bike there, people will recognise your quad bike and see that you're in the police station. So within five minutes, everyone on the island knows that you're making a report.

[Luke Jones]

Rhiannon filed her report to the police just hours before her stay on the island ended.

[Rhiannon Adam]

People have already started to shun you. It's. It's almost instantaneous. So you, you're constantly having to worry about, is this actually putting me at more risk? Am I safer to report this or am I actually less safe reporting this? I. I don't know. So you have a great insight very, very quickly into how the women felt and how, how imprisoning it really and truly is and how brave they were to ever come forward. And that should never be underestimated because I have experienced in my own very, very small way, and nothing happened to me in the way that it happened to them.

[Luke Jones]

During her three month stint on the island, Rihanna took plenty of photographs. Yes, of the people and of the landscapes, but also of other photos she found lying around, documents. And she compiled all this into a

[Rhiannon Adam]

big book, Big Fence, Pitcairn island, which is a very exhaustive book about the history and legacy and present day Pitcairn Island. Yes.

[Luke Jones]

What's the illustration on the front?

[Rhiannon Adam]

It's the bounty and two men's hands coming and strangling the island. Oh, there, that's Pitkin. That's Christian's cave. And then it's these men's hands coming in, strangling the. Throttling the island. Yes. There's two sides to the book. This side, which is the text element, which is all of the captions and essays that refer to, you know, the whole story of Pitcairn Island. It's from this direction. So you're meant to be standing on this side of the table and not looking at the images at time. The same, same time you have to work with the book sitting on a table, because I wanted it to be honorific for the victims in the story so that it wasn't a casual book that you could pick up and just flick through, because I felt that that had been the story that had happened over and over with these women, where they had just been thrown by the wayside and by having this kind of object that you have to interact with in a very particular way, it meant that you were honoring their story and not just bypassing it in favor of a pretty picture.

[Luke Jones]

It was 2015 that Rhiannon visited the island. Shortly after that, another long running legal issue was resolved. Mike Warren, an islander who had been Pitcairn's Mare from 2008 to 2013 and who had worked in child safeguarding, was charged in 2010 for possessing more than a thousand child sexual abuse images and videos. After 60 days of court hearings, many years and 21 defense applications arguing flaws in the Pitcairn constitution, judicial bias, lack of independence, failure in administration and the rest, he was finally sentenced in 2016 to 20 months behind bars. Pitcairn bars. The prison had to stop being tourist accommodation to once again serve its original purpose. And Mike again got into trouble. In 2021, he was found guilty of indecency after being seen walking around the island naked on three occasions. The Pitcairn Magistrates Court took care of this one. Simon Young, the new mayor, a Yorkshireman, as a matter of fact, who had made his home on the island, was magistrate and he was assisted by two assessors, Carroll Warren and former mayor and convicted rapist Steve Christian. The three of them all found Mike Warren guilty and he was fined. His final appeal against that sentence was dismissed in January 2024.

[Rhiannon Adam]

They are remarkable at hanging on. There's a piece of archive material in this book and I'll see if I can find it, actually, because it's sort of. It speaks to this. Pitcairn annual review for 1977. Pitcairn continues to exist. Just the population teeters above the minimum necessary to man the boats to go out to the reducing number of ships that call. In Pitcairn terms, it's been an eventful year.

[Luke Jones]

Two very short paragraphs.

[Rhiannon Adam]

Two very, very short paragraphs and it says it all. Pitcairn continues to exist.

[Luke Jones]

Just. Do you think the same applies to 2024?

[Rhiannon Adam]

Yeah, and. And I think it will continue until one day it just absolutely, you know, can't, because there's some mass exodus for some reason, I think otherwise there'll always be a few people that believe in the romantic idea of Pitcairn Island.

[Luke Jones]

There are now just 37 permanent residents on Pitcairn and their life continues to. To rely very heavily on British government support, on British taxpayer cash. For the financial year 2024, 25, the island got £5.2 million. So if there are 37 residents. That's a cost of 140 grand per pit Kerner to support them living there for just a year. Even so, Pitcairn is rarely if ever, discussed in the corridors of power in Westminster, although a former member of Boris Johnson's government says that when they were drawing up their policy to process asylum seekers offshore in a different country, Rwanda was of course, eventually chosen, but all of the British overseas territories were discussed as options. Pitcairn, however, was quickly discounted in around 30 seconds with the line quote, no Runway and too many pedos. The management of the island today is the job of the current Pitcairn governor, who is of course, the British High Commissioner in New Zealand as well, currently Iona Thomas.

[Iona Thomas]

The population of Pitcairn is quite small and it's been declining over the years. So it's certainly an issue that has been on our minds in government for quite some time. And we're really committed to supporting the wishes of the people on Pitcairn.

[Luke Jones]

They've put money into a new science centre on the island.

[Iona Thomas]

She tells me, we've designated the entire marine area around the four Pitcairn islands as marine protected areas. And as a result, we know that we've got some of the best shark populations, best fish populations, and because there's been so little human activity in that part of the Pacific Ocean, Pitcairn actually has amazingly clear water. It has some of the healthiest coral reefs in the world. And so it's a great site for marine biologists and other marine scientists to come and do research. And I recently opened a science base when I was there last year. And so we're hoping that by promoting this wonderful marine environment in Pitcairn, that will actually attract new people to the island, either on a short term or a longer term basis.

[Luke Jones]

But how safe do women feel on the island? With what Rhiannon said her experience on the island was like, and the recent conviction of former mayor Mike Warren, it's

[Iona Thomas]

always going to be difficult to control individuals in any society, but what's important is that we have the processes and the mechanisms that should anyone feel uncomfortable or have any concerns, that they can report those really quickly and swiftly to the on island police officer, to our child safeguarding officer, who's the administrator, and that we have the ability to follow up on those quickly and to make sure that they're taken really seriously and ensure that women do feel safe.

[Luke Jones]

There's certainly more paid outsiders. There's no teacher currently because there's no primary School aged children living on the island. But there's the police, there's a British official.

[Iona Thomas]

We also brought in a full time GP for medical assistance. On Ireland, we have access to social workers who can provide expert advice. And we've really created a strong child safeguarding process through a committee and we have a policy and an ordinance so that there really is a bigger focus, a bigger understanding and constant monitoring of child safeguarding issues.

[Luke Jones]

And would you say that's working?

[Iona Thomas]

I think it is working because we now know that where there are concerns, or if people were to have concerns, they know where to get help, they know how to raise those issues. And we have a really strong and sort of visible presence of that safeguarding.

[Luke Jones]

The issue, I guess, was not just about paedophile offending, but there was also an issue with a toxic patriarchy. For many years as well, men were in control. It was very clear that women were treated very differently. How much progress has been made on that front?

[Iona Thomas]

There's been a lot of work with the community about the legacy of the trials and the culture that enabled that. And we used some social workers, people who were experienced in trauma, to do a lot of workshops with the community to work through that as part of the journey of reconciliation, but also to consider the wider implications of the actions that had taken place. And that led to a community reconciliation event where a monument was unveiled which acknowledged that pain and suffering you mentioned.

[Luke Jones]

That monument is quite interesting. I was struck by the text on it. It says, to say we're sorry does not seek punishment or blame. It doesn't say they were right and we were wrong, just that we have learned and understand the errors of our ways. That doesn't sound like a full acceptance of the wrong that happened in the past, does it really?

[Iona Thomas]

My understanding is that the wording of that was agreed upon by the community and was a product of the workshops that were held. And so that was how they chose to express what had happened and where they were.

[Luke Jones]

At this point, it doesn't say they were right and we were wrong. I mean, that's quite incredible, isn't it?

[Iona Thomas]

Well, it's part of the pathway to reconciliation and that's a community event. We wouldn't seek to impose our views or our judgment on that.

[Luke Jones]

You say it's a pathway to reconciliation. I mean, is there still a long way to go? Is there this a process that hasn't finished yet, do you think?

[Iona Thomas]

I think everyone would have experienced this differently. We know that there are people off Ireland at the moment who were perhaps survivors of that abuse who won't have taken part in those workshops or been there for the unveiling of the monument. And they'll probably be impacted differently and at a different point in their own journey with that. And similarly on the island, it will be different for everybody who was affected. And I think reconciliation is something that is a process rather than an event.

[Luke Jones]

Iona Thomas, the current governor of Pitcairn, we emailed the surviving convicted men on the island and some of the women who live there as well to ask about their thoughts on how rehabilitation and reconciliation has gone is going. Only one replied, saying, quote, sorry, I have put the years behind me and don't wish to be part of it anymore. Back with Rhiannon, she leased through the Pitcairn Memories printed in her book.

[Rhiannon Adam]

I turned 30 on Pitcairn Island. It was a very funny place to turn 30. Very strange. I was told my eggs were going to seed and I better hurry up.

[Luke Jones]

Photographs, a scan of the police report that she made. The letter of apology from the man who broke into her room naked.

[Rhiannon Adam]

I'm really sorry for scaring you last night. I felt bad all night. I haven't slept. I just laid there in bed thinking about the look on your face. I hope you can forgive me. I can tell you now I'll never again scare or try and scare you. Even if it's just for fun. I won't do it. I hope I can still take you to some of the place on the island that you wish to see. I hope you like the flowers. P.S. i'm going fishing for tuna tomorrow around 6:30 after I get the power on. If you'd like to come, I can stop and pick you up by the car. Only if I see you from the road. If not, maybe another time if you like.

[Luke Jones]

No.

[Rhiannon Adam]

Yeah, exactly.

[Luke Jones]

Along with reporting that unwelcome late night visit, she also had to report a theft to the police. The man had given her a parting gift, an original iron nail from the Bounty ship, the ship famously commandeered by Fletcher Christian and his mutineers in 1790. But Rhiannon saw that there was a museum code on it, so clearly it was stolen property. And not wanting to be accused of theft herself, she returned it during her trip to the Pitcairn police station.

[Rhiannon Adam]

I sort of said, can you not haul the guy over the coals for this as well until I've gone? Because that's just gonna make things really awkward for me because now I'm gonna be a snitch. It's one thing Reporting on this, the thing that happened, but returning the nail. That's a bit snitchy. So can you just. Not until I've left anyway. Obviously couldn't resist. So my quad bike broke down and ran out of fuel on my last day. And it happened to break down just outside of his house. And he sort of said that with his arms felt. And he said, you want my help now, do you? He said, I understand about everything else, but why did you have to say anything about the bounty nail? Great. So the one request that I had just was not honored. Great. Okay, here I am in this situation. Exactly why I didn't want anyone to say anything about it. So we're leaving. He fills me up with fuel. I go down to the. The dock. I was borrowing Randy Christian's quad bike, so it was his quad bike that I was driving the whole time I was on Pitcair.

[Luke Jones]

Another convicted rapist.

[Rhiannon Adam]

Not a convicted rapist. Yeah. So I. I drive down to the dock with all my stuff, and he's part of the longboat crew. Randy's part of the longboat crew. All of the men are part of the longboat crew. So you're being taken out by Steve Christian, by Sha Christian, by Randy Christian.

[Luke Jones]

Rapist. Rapist. Rapist, yeah.

[Rhiannon Adam]

So you're being taken out to meet the ship and be offloaded by all of them because they're the crew. And everyone's hugging each other. The crew and saying goodbye. And I stand on the deck of the Claymore with my stuff and the sky comes over. Who's the guy who came into my bedroom and he tries to give me this hug, and I stand there stiff as a board, and he slipped something else into my pocket, but I didn't notice at the time that he'd slipped something into my pocket. So the island is getting smaller and smaller and smaller and it's disappearing and it feels like this horrible bad dream. Like, how did I get through all of this? And it's disappearing and it feels like, wow, a blip. And suddenly I've survived it. And I was actually crying because I out of complete relief that I'd managed to not die. So the island is disappearing from view, and I put my hand inside of my pocket and I find it's another bounty nail. And I thought, I cannot believe that I have ended up with another one of these.

[Luke Jones]

Rhiannon now has an 18 karat gold cast of the bounty nail that she wears around her neck on a chain.

[Rhiannon Adam]

So that's my Pitcairn island charm. And I also got this made, which is because I don't have any tattoos. It's a very chunky silver ring that sits on my middle finger of my right hand, which is of the bounty ship. This is sort of my survivor's ring. This is my reminder that no matter how bad life gets, and I'm sitting there thinking, well, why hasn't the bus come on time? Why hasn't my package gotten delivered? Oh, dear. Worries me. I look down at my right hand, I go, huh. But at least I'm not on Pitkin Island. Things could be worse.

[Luke Jones]

So if it's complicated for Rhiannon, having spent three months there, I still can't fathom how glenda processes the 19 years she grew up on the island and the long shadow that it's cast throughout her life. In fact, Glenda said when I started interviewing her for this that she wanted the good as well as the bad side of Pitcairn to be reflected. She last stood on Pitcairn soil in 1973. And as we've heard, the place is wrapped up with incredibly traumatic memories for her. But she still often talks fondly about the place and speaks of the people and the community with real affection. When I last spoke to you, you were saying, oh, at some point I want to go. Go there. And actually, you said one of the things holding you back is that sense of being an outsider and how that might play now you've been away for so long. Is that still a sort of to do at some point, or is it not really on the table?

[Rhiannon Adam]

I'd still love to go back. I really would. Yeah. I can't stop loving the place. Even though what happened to me, me, it's my home and you can't take the Pitkin out of me.

[Luke Jones]

No.

[Rhiannon Adam]

No, you can't.

[Luke Jones]

You were showing me some photos, weren't you? The harbour and the.

[Rhiannon Adam]

I'll show you. Just trying to find it. That's our bounty.

[Luke Jones]

Where does the song come from in

[Rhiannon Adam]

our hymn book, that. That's when we're saying goodbye to people. We'd sing it. Leaving a ship. Yeah, that's to prepare ourselves.

[Luke Jones]

In the street

[Rhiannon Adam]

by and by we shall meet On a beautiful star in the sea by and by we shall be taken strong.

[Luke Jones]

Thank you for listening to the Pitcairn Trials. It's an Audio Always production presented by me, Luke Jones. The series was produced by Lucy Ditchment with assistant producer Mansi Vithlani. Sound design by Craig Edmondson. The executive producer is Joe Meek. If you've been affected by anything that you've heard in this story. There are links to organizations who might be able to offer help in the show page.

[Advertiser/Host]

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[Luke Jones]

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[Iona Thomas]

Hi, I'm Rachel Fisher.

[Rhiannon Adam]

And I'm Desi Jetekin and we're the host of Hollywood Crime Scene, a true crime podcast that focuses on celebrity crime, infamous crime, movies and cases from Los Angeles.

[Lord Hoffman]

From movie, TV and music stars to

[Rhiannon Adam]

athletes, as well as the wealthy and politically elite, we cover the seedier side of the lifestyles of the rich and famous. New episodes drop every Tuesday and you

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[Rhiannon Adam]

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