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SYDNEY, Australia - Six men have been convicted of charges ranging from rape to indecent assault after trials that exposed a culture of sexual abuse on their small Pacific island, home to descendants of the 18th century mutineers from the British ship HMS Bounty.
Among those convicted late Sunday was the mayor of Pitcairn Island, Steve Christian, who claims to be a direct descendant of mutiny leader Fletcher Christian. He was cleared of four indecent assaults and one rape but convicted of five other rapes.
The verdicts were read by judges sent from New Zealand for the trials, which began Sept.30 in a makeshift court in the island's community hall. Sentences were expected to be announced this week, British authorities said Monday.
Islanders have expressed concern that if the men are imprisoned, there will be no one to crew a long boat that serves as the island's lifeline, transporting freight and passengers to and from passing ships that cannot dock along the rocky shore.
In all, seven men faced more than 50 sex abuse charges, some dating back 40 years. One man was acquitted, said Bryan Nicolson of the British High Commission in Wellington, New Zealand.
Prosecutors, building their case on the testimony of eight women, painted a picture of a male-dominated society in which underage sex was commonplace.
But some of the island's women came out in defense of the men, saying that while underage sex did happen, it was consensual and important to the island's survival. Pitcairn has a permanent population of just 47.
Steve Christian's son, Randy, was convicted of four rapes and five indecent assaults but cleared of one rape and two indecent assaults.
Len Brown, 78, was convicted of two rapes. His son, Dave, was convicted of nine indecent assaults and cleared of four indecent assaults and two charges of gross indecency.
During one of the trials, prosecutor Christine Gordon said Dave Brown assaulted one girl in the island's Seventh-day Adventist Church and another during a fishing trip along the island's rugged coast.
Dennis Christian, 49, the postmaster and another descendant of Fletcher Christian, was convicted of one indecent assault and two sexual assaults he pleaded guilty to at trial.
Terry Young was convicted of one rape and six indecent assaults but cleared of one indecent assault.
Jay Warren, the island's magistrate, was found innocent of indecent assault.
None of the victims of abuse still lives on the island; they testified by way of a video link from the northern New Zealand city of Auckland. A New Zealand police officer who told the eight women of the verdicts said they welcomed the outcome.
The convicted men could be sentenced to prison time in the island's newly built cell block. But they will continue to be free pending the outcome of an appeal by defense lawyers against Britain's jurisdiction over the remote island. That case is expected to be heard next year in New Zealand.
Professor John Connell, an expert on the South Pacific from the University of Sydney, said even if the men are incarcerated, they likely will be released temporarily when they are needed to crew the longboat.
If they are imprisoned and not let out even temporarily, "then it would be a punishment for the whole community," he said.
Pitcairn, lying midway between Peru and New Zealand, has long fascinated the world for being the refuge of the men who mutinied aboard the Bounty and cast Capt. William Bligh adrift with his supporters in 1789.
The Pitcairn Islands are a group of five rocky volcanic outcroppings - only the largest of which is inhabited - with a combined area of just 18 square miles.