Two Pitcairn sex offenders appeal convictions News
Two Pitcairn sex offenders appeal convictions

[JURIST] Two of six men convicted in October 2004 [JURIST report] for committing sex offenses on the small Pacific island of Pitcairn appeared in court Tuesday to appeal their sentences at the Pitcairn Court of Appeal [Wikipedia backgrounder] in Auckland, New Zealand. Lawyers for the two men say they were unaware that they committed a crime because they did not know that British law applied to the residents of Pitcairn Island [government website], which was originally settled by eighteenth-century mutineers from the HMS Bounty. Thirteen men were originally charged in 2004 for committing a wide range of sexual assaults against women and girls over a 30-year period. The appeal hearing is expected to last two weeks. AFP has more.

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