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PITCAIRN ISLAND (AP) -- A woman testifying in the sex abuse trial of the mayor of Pitcairn Island said he treated girls on the remote British territory like his "harem" and accused him of twice raping her.

Steve Christian, 53, the mayor and most prominent member of Pitcairn's permanent population of 47 people, has pleaded innocent to six charges of rape and four of indecent assault on four women in 1964-75.

The tiny Pacific island is home to descendants of the 18th-century mutineers from the British ship H.M.S. Bounty.

A woman speaking by video link from the New Zealand city of Auckland on Monday -- Sunday in Pitcairn, which is east of the international dateline -- said that Christian took her for a ride on his motorbike and raped her. The second time he allegedly raped her was in one of the island's boats, she said.

Defense attorneys suggested to the woman that she had never had nonconsensual sex with Christian. She denied that and in a statement to police said Christian treated island girls "like we were all his harem."

The trials of three Pitcairn men are underway in two makeshift courtrooms in the island's community hall. In total, seven island men face 55 sex abuse charges dating back up to 40 years. The trials, under British law before New Zealand judges, are expected to take six weeks.

Some islanders claim that if the men are convicted and imprisoned, they will no longer have enough men on the island to crew longboats that are the only way to bring vital supplies to the island from passing freight and cruise ships. Pitcairn has no airstrip or port.

The Pitcairn Islands are a group of five rocky volcanic outcrops -- only the largest of which is inhabited -- with a combined area of just 47 square kilometers (18 square miles). They are 14,885 kilometers (9,250 miles) from London, in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and Peru.