Shawn Christian

Shawn Brent Christian (born 14 September 1975) is a Pitcairnese politician who has served as Mayor of the Pitcairn Islands since 2026, having previously held the office between 2014 and 2019. He previously served a prison sentence after being convicted of child rape.

Biography Christian was born to Steve Christian 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. In 1998 he moved to Australia and studied in Newcastle, New South Wales.

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 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 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).