Shawn Christian (mayor)

Shawn Brent Christian (born 14 September 1975) is a Pitcairnese politician, who served as Mayor of the Pitcairn Islands between 2014 and 2019. He was convicted of child rape in 2007.

Shawn Christian
Mayor of the Pitcairn Islands
In office
1 January 2014 – 31 December 2019
MonarchElizabeth II
GovernorVictoria Treadell
Jonathan Sinclair
Preceded byMike Warren
Succeeded byCharlene Warren-Peu
Personal details
Born (1975-09-14) 14 September 1975
Adamstown, Pitcairn Islands
Political partyIndependent

Biography

Christian was born to Steve Christian and Olive Jal Brown, and was named after Shawn Branigan, the son of friends of his parents.[1] He is a patrilineal descendant of Fletcher Christian. In 1998 he moved to Australia and studied in Newcastle, New South Wales.[2][3]

Along with his father, who was then serving as the islands' mayor, and older brother Randall, he was implicated in the Pitcairn sexual assault trial in 2004, and after being extradited from New Zealand to stand trial, was found guilty of two counts of child rape and one count of aiding or abetting a rape.[3] One of the charges related to an incident in which he and his brother gang raped a 12-year-old girl.[4][5][6] He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison,[7] but was released after two years.[8]

In the 2013 elections, Christian was elected Mayor of the Pitcairn Islands, beating Simon Young in the third round of voting with a majority of just under 3%, after no candidate received an absolute majority in the first round and the second round (runoff) resulted in a tie.[9] He was re-elected in the 2016 elections for another three-year term.[10]

References
  1. Who Are the Pitcairners? Archived 2017-05-24 at the Wayback Machine Pitcairn Islands Study Center
  2. Christian challenges Pitcairn trial Archived 2014-04-11 at the Wayback Machine The Age, 25 November 2005
  3. Pitcairn Islander guilty of child sex Archived 2016-06-04 at the Wayback Machine The Australian, 10 January 2007
  4. "Two Pitcairn men guilty of sex charges against girls". NZ Herald. 9 January 2007. Archived from the original on 3 November 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  5. Prochnau, William; Parker, Laura (17 December 2007). "Trouble in Paradise". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  6. Richardson, Nigel (21 September 2019). "Human stain on island idyll". The Weekend Australian Magazine. Archived from the original on 3 November 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  7. Pitcairn: Paradise Lost Archived 2014-03-04 at the Wayback Machine Readers Digest Asia
  8. Eco-tourism: Pitcairn strives to live down its terrible past Archived 2015-09-25 at the Wayback Machine The Independent
  9. Dem Tull Archived 2014-01-03 at the Wayback Machine October 2013
  10. Pitcairn Islands Government 2019 Archived 2019-11-05 at the Wayback Machine Theodora
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