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

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

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

Biography

Christian was born to

Steve Christian Steven Raymond Christian (born 26 June 1951, Pitcairn Island) 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 fo ...

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

Fletcher Christian Fletcher Christian (25 September 1764 – 20 September 1793) was master's mate on board HMS ''Bounty'' during Lieutenant William Bligh's voyage to Tahiti during 1787–1789 for breadfruit plants. In the mutiny on the ''Bounty'', Christian sei ...

. In 1998 he moved to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and studied in

Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle ( ; Awabakal: ) is a metropolitan area and the second most populated city in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas, and is the hub of the Greater Newcastle area, w ...

.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 ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

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. 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. He was re-elected in the 2016 elections for another three-year term.Pitcairn Islands Government 2019
Theodora

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 Pitcairn Islands Seventh-day Adventists Members of the Island Council of the Pitcairn Islands