Shawn Brent Christian (born 14 September 1975) is a Pitcairnese politician, who served as Mayor of the

Pitcairn Islands The Pitcairn Islands ( ; Pitkern: '), officially Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, are a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the ...

between 2014 and 2019. He previously served time in prison after being convicted of child rape.

Biography

Christian was born to

Steve Christian Steven Raymond Christian (born 26 June 1951) is a politician, convicted sex offender and child rapist from the Pitcairn Islands. He was mayor of the islands from 1999 until 2004, when he was removed from office after being found guilty in the ...

and Olive Jal Brown, and was named after Shawn Branigan, the son of friends of his parents. He is a patrilineal great-great-great-great-great-grandson of

Fletcher Christian Fletcher Christian (25 September 1764 – 20 September 1793) was an English sailor who led the mutiny on the ''Bounty'' in 1789, during which he seized command of the Royal Navy vessel from Lieutenant William Bligh. In 1787, Christian was ap ...

. In 1998 he moved to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and studied in

Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle, also commonly referred to as Greater Newcastle ( ; ), is a large Metropolitan area, metropolitan area and the second-most-populous such area of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the cities of City of Newcastle, Newcastle and Ci ...

.Pitcairn Islander guilty of child sex
The Australian, 10 January 2007 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 New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

to stand trial, was found guilty of two counts of child rape and one count of aiding or abetting a rape. One of the charges related to an incident in which he and his brother gang raped a 12-year-old girl. He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison, but was released after two years. Due to the dearth of manpower on the island, he and two other defendants were needed to help build the HM Prison Pitcairn where they would be detained. 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 one vote, after no candidate received an absolute majority in the first round and the second round (runoff) resulted in a tie. He was re-elected in the

2016 elections Africa Benin Republic *2016 Beninese presidential election 6 March 2016 Cape Verde * 2016 Cape Verdean presidential election 2 October 2016 Chad * 2016 Chadian presidential election 10 April 2016 Djibouti * 2016 Djiboutian presidential ...

for another three-year term. Rhiannon Adam, an Irish photojournalist who stayed on the island for 3 months in 2015, discusses Christian's successful mayoral runs despite being a convicted paedophile in ''Big Fences / Pitcairn Island'' (2022). In a 2019 ''Daily Telegraph'' profile on the island's post-scandal legacy, Nigel Richardson notes, 'The decision by islanders to elect Shawn Christian as mayor was evidently taken with no consideration for the kind of image or message it projects', and quotes Adam's remark that, 'By allowing hawn Christianto hold office it's already saying, "Yeah, but the trial wasn't really a big deal, was it?" If you really want Pitcairn Island to have a future, he should be the one stepping down."

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Christian, Shawn Living people 1975 births Mayors of the Pitcairn Islands People convicted of child sexual abuse Pitcairn Islands people convicted of rape Politicians convicted of sex offences Members of the Island Council of the Pitcairn Islands