allesennogwat
01-31-2007, 09:16 AM
The descendants of the Bounty mutineers threw the hangman's gibbet into the sea as soon as they arrived on Norfolk Island, and for 150 years there was no murder in the remote South Pacific paradise.
Now New Zealand chef Glenn McNeill, 28, is to go on trial for the horrific killing of 29-year-old Australian woman Janelle Patton in a case which has shocked the tiny island and its 2,000 closely-knit inhabitants.
If convicted, McNeill will not face the death penalty as the notoriously brutal former British penal colony is now a territory of Australia, where capital punishment has been scrapped.
But he faces the prospect of life in jail, and the trial in the old stone courthouse is the focus of intense interest, not least because the taint of suspicion fell on the proud islanders themselves.
After Patton's stabbed and battered body was found at a popular picnic spot on Easter Sunday March 31, 2002, they were subjected to mass fingerprinting, despite protesting that the killer could not be one of them.
A third of the islanders are direct descendants of Fletcher Christian and his band of mutineers who set Captain William Bligh adrift from the British warship the Bounty when they famously fell in love with the South Pacific, and its women, in 1789.
Despite a swirl of rumours over the identity of the murderer there was no progress in the case until McNeill, a father of two, was arrested in February last year in his native New Zealand after what police described as a DNA breakthrough.
Preparations for the long-awaited trial have included fitting the small 175 year-old courthouse with video equipment to broadcast the proceedings to about 100 reporters and members of the public in two large marquees outside.
"There's never been a trial anything like this," said government secretary Peter Maywald. "It's the first murder charge in 150 years. We've had controversial local matters, but nothing like this."
Patton, a hotel restaurant manager who had lived on the island for almost three years, had gone for a walk on the day she died.
Her body, with fractures to her ribs, skull and pelvis as well as stab wounds, was found several hours later, partially wrapped in plastic sheeting, dumped at the local beauty spot.
Patton's parents, Ron and Carol, and her brother Mark are expected to attend the trial in the courthouse, which is overlooked by Rooty Hill road, where Janelle was walking when she disappeared.
Norfolk Island, 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) off the east coast of Australia and 800 kilometres north of New Zealand, is just eight kilometres long by five kilometres wide.
The island was discovered by Captain James Cook in 1774 and soon became one of the most feared and loathed prison colonies in the British Empire until it was abandoned in 1855.
It was settled by the descendants of the Bounty mutineers in 1856, after they found their first refuge on Pitcairn Island too small. Horrified by the reminders of punishments the prisoners had endured, they threw the gibbet into the sea.
The island is now known as a popular holiday destination, and as the home of internationally acclaimed Australian novelist Colleen McCullough, author of The Thorn Birds, Morgan's Run and the Masters of Rome series.
Now New Zealand chef Glenn McNeill, 28, is to go on trial for the horrific killing of 29-year-old Australian woman Janelle Patton in a case which has shocked the tiny island and its 2,000 closely-knit inhabitants.
If convicted, McNeill will not face the death penalty as the notoriously brutal former British penal colony is now a territory of Australia, where capital punishment has been scrapped.
But he faces the prospect of life in jail, and the trial in the old stone courthouse is the focus of intense interest, not least because the taint of suspicion fell on the proud islanders themselves.
After Patton's stabbed and battered body was found at a popular picnic spot on Easter Sunday March 31, 2002, they were subjected to mass fingerprinting, despite protesting that the killer could not be one of them.
A third of the islanders are direct descendants of Fletcher Christian and his band of mutineers who set Captain William Bligh adrift from the British warship the Bounty when they famously fell in love with the South Pacific, and its women, in 1789.
Despite a swirl of rumours over the identity of the murderer there was no progress in the case until McNeill, a father of two, was arrested in February last year in his native New Zealand after what police described as a DNA breakthrough.
Preparations for the long-awaited trial have included fitting the small 175 year-old courthouse with video equipment to broadcast the proceedings to about 100 reporters and members of the public in two large marquees outside.
"There's never been a trial anything like this," said government secretary Peter Maywald. "It's the first murder charge in 150 years. We've had controversial local matters, but nothing like this."
Patton, a hotel restaurant manager who had lived on the island for almost three years, had gone for a walk on the day she died.
Her body, with fractures to her ribs, skull and pelvis as well as stab wounds, was found several hours later, partially wrapped in plastic sheeting, dumped at the local beauty spot.
Patton's parents, Ron and Carol, and her brother Mark are expected to attend the trial in the courthouse, which is overlooked by Rooty Hill road, where Janelle was walking when she disappeared.
Norfolk Island, 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) off the east coast of Australia and 800 kilometres north of New Zealand, is just eight kilometres long by five kilometres wide.
The island was discovered by Captain James Cook in 1774 and soon became one of the most feared and loathed prison colonies in the British Empire until it was abandoned in 1855.
It was settled by the descendants of the Bounty mutineers in 1856, after they found their first refuge on Pitcairn Island too small. Horrified by the reminders of punishments the prisoners had endured, they threw the gibbet into the sea.
The island is now known as a popular holiday destination, and as the home of internationally acclaimed Australian novelist Colleen McCullough, author of The Thorn Birds, Morgan's Run and the Masters of Rome series.