-Caveat Lector-
The Island Paradise With a Dark History By Martin Croucher Epoch Times UK Staff 1/16/08 But hidden beneath the friendly smiles of the 47 inhabitants is a dark secret. In 2004, six men—a third of the island's adult male population, including Pitcairn mayor Steve Christian, a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian's—were been convicted under English law of 33 sexual offences, some dating back 40 years. The trials revealed that for generations the islanders have had a culture of rape, adultery and child-abuse involving children as young as five. As Pitcairn is one of the last remaining British colonies, detectives from Kent launched an 18-month investigation that would prove to be one of the most complex, and costly, in British legal history. Detectives Rob Vinson and Peter George were recently accorded in the Queen's New Year's honours list. The detectives found every woman, born and bred on Pitcairn had experienced some form of sexual abuse in their lives. Many said that it would be impossible to find a girl over the age of 12 on the island who had not been the victim of sexual abuse. But during the police investigation, eyewitnesses on the island said that locals did not believe what they were doing was wrong and claimed it was a part of their culture....However, more than 200 years on and with little contact with the outside world, the islanders had developed a degenerate sexual culture where rape, adultery and child abuse were pervasive. That culture began to unravel in 1996 when Dennis McGookin and Peter George, two detectives from Kent police, visited the island on the allegation that Shawn Christian, one of the children of Pitcairn governor Steve Christian, raped an 11-year-old. The case collapsed after Shawn claimed consensual sex and provided love letters to prove it. The detectives, who were the first British officers ever to set foot on the colony, raised concerns that the legal system there was at best rudimentary, and not fit to deal with serious crime. At the time Pitcairn barely saw itself as under British law, having never seen an attorney or judge....One her second visit, in 1999, Ms Cox was confronted with allegations that Shawn and brother, Randy Christian, had raped an 11-year-old girl. The message went out to London and the detectives were back, although this time Rob Vinson accompanied Peter George. However the investigation was initially frustrated when the brothers denied the allegations and they were not able to find any leads. Just as they were about to leave they decided to interview a friend of the accused who was living in Auckland, New Zealand. She said she knew nothing about the case but as the detectives turned to leave she mentioned almost in passing that she had been raped when she was 10. She later became the main whistleblower of the case and provided the detectives with an almost endless ream of leads. It was then that the culture of abuse unravelled. DCI Vinson said: "She told us that you wouldn't find any girl on the island of the age of 12 who hadn't gone through that experience. Every Pitcairn girl that we spoke to who was born and bred on the island described some kind of abuse. "As we were questioning witnesses they were giving us more and more leads, and it got bigger and bigger. It just snowballed." Aided by a New Zealand policewoman, the Kent detectives hunted down every woman who had come of age on Pitcairn in the past 40 years and 24 agreed to make statements. The officials uncovered more than 100 allegations of sexual abuse against 31 men, four of who had since died. More than 30 of the complaints could be defined as rape under English law, all against girls who were under-age at the time. A British social worker who visited the island at the time in 2000 described a community deeply shaken by the inquiry. She dug deep into the culture on the island and revealed a way of life where sex permeated everything. She told of a society where childhood sex games and abuse were commonplace, as were teenage pregnancies and abortions. _http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-1-16/64145.html_ (http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-1-16/64145.html) **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape. http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489 www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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