Welcome to the Witness Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Claire Bowes.

In 2004 a child sex abuse trial on a remote island in the Pacific shocked the world.

Nearly half the adult male population of Pitcairn

stood accused of rape and sexual assault. The accused and the victims were all descendants of British sailors who'd mutinied on a ship called

HMS bounty in the 18th century.

Some listeners may find parts of this program disturbing.

Physically the place has a very strong presence, you know.

I mean I almost regard

Pitcair as a character in the story, you know, the island. And I remember when I got

there thinking this place feels malevolent and then saying to myself don't be stupid and fanciful

you know it's just because you know you're going to hear some pretty horrible

stories here but that sense never left me.

Pitcairn Island one and a half kilometers wide and three kilometers long, is a rocky volcanic

island 5,000 kilometers from New Zealand. In 2004 it had a population of just 50. There were no

telephones, no roads, no airstrip, and no safe harbour. Kathy Marks was one of

just six journalists who'd been granted permission to

travel to the island to report on the sex abuse trials.

It was a clear day and we saw it probably about six hours out as a little dot on the horizon that got bigger and bigger and once we arrived we couldn't actually land because there is no safe harbour there. The only boats that can really safely land are the long boats that the island men operate and have operated for decades.

And we waited for the long boats to come out, which they did after quite a long time, I think, which was intentional.

These are typical of the games that the island men like to play.

You know, let's just keep them waiting.

Then they did come out eventually, and one of the first things that struck

...