Pitcairn men appeal sex-with-minors convictions News
Pitcairn men appeal sex-with-minors convictions

[JURIST] Six Pitcairn Island [government website] men convicted last year [JURIST report] of rape, sexual assault, and indecent assault in one of the most unusual trials in British legal history [JURIST report] began their appeal process Monday in the Pitcairn Supreme Court [PacLII court database]. The six men, four of whom face jail time and two who received hundreds of hours of community service, are appealing their convictions for sex with minors, arguing that underage sex has been a part of the island's heritage since its settlement by the eighteenth-century mutineers from the HMS Bounty. All of the convictions have been postponed until challenges by the convicted men's lawyers to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom [JURIST report] over the tiny Pacific island have been heard. Reuters has more.