[JURIST] The six men convicted in October 2004 of committing sexual abuse [JURIST report] against women and underage girls on the British possession of Pitcairn Island [government website] over a period of 30 years have lost their latest appeals. Appearing before a specially-constituted Pitcairn Court of Appeal [Wikipedia backgrounder] in Auckland, New Zealand, the men had asserted that English law did not apply to their case as Pitcairn Island never ratified or approved the British legal system. The islanders - half the island's able-bodied male population - will now appeal to Judicial Committee of the Privy Council [official website], the highest appeal court for current and former British colonies, later this year. Pitcairn Island was originally settled by descendants of Fletcher Christian who led the 1789 mutiny against Captain William Bligh on the HMS Bounty. AFP has more.