Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004 denied the island's colonial status, and with it the United Kingdom's judicial authority. Defence lawyers for the seven accused men claimed that British sovereignty over the islands was unconstitutional: HMS "Bounty" mutineers, from whom almost all of the current island population is descended (together with Polynesians), had effectively renounced their British citizenship by committing a capital offence in the burning of the "Bounty" in 1790, they said. According to the Public Defender of the Pitcairn Islands Paul Dacre (who was appointed in 2003), islanders still celebrated this act annually by burning an effigy of the "Bounty" in a symbolic rejection
Raine Island and waters of the Wuthathi people, who shared their interests in the area with the Erubam Le (Darnley Island), the Ugarem Le (Stephen Island) and Meriam Le ( Murray Island) Torres Strait Islanders During the 1890s the island was mined for guano. The waters around the island were treacherous for early European navigators. More than thirty shipwrecks can be found off the coast of the island including HMS "Pandora", a vessel that in 1791 was involved in the capture of a group of mutineers from the HMS "Bounty". As a consequence, the beacon was built by convict labour in 1844,