Prosecuting chiefs from common law jurisdictions around the world are meeting in Belfast and Dublin this week to consider best practice in combating national and global crime.
Hosted jointly by the DPP and the Northern Ireland DPP, the heads of the prosecution services from countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, the Caribbean and Hong Kong have been discussing themes like restorative justice, balancing the protection of human rights with the prosecution of terrorist crimes, and combating the trafficking of women and international sex crimes.
They also heard the Crown Solicitor for Auckland, Simon Moore, describe the mobilisation of the full resources of the British prosecution system in pursuit of a number of sex abusers in the tiny community of Pitcairn islanders. The population of the island, the British overseas territory in the middle of the Pacific made famous as the scene of the mutiny on the Bounty, is 43.
The trial involved the construction on the island of a jail and accommodation for the dozens of lawyers involved, three judges, seven defendants, and legal proceedings that began in 2000 and are not yet over.
In 2000 Mr Moore was approached by the British High Commissioner in New Zealand to become the public prosecutor for Pitcairn. At the time an investigation was going on, by the Kent police, of allegations of sexual abuse on the island.
The allegations concerned about 30 men, of whom about a third were dead, very old, or too ill to stand trial. The allegations against some of the others were of a relatively minor nature. In the end seven islanders were charged with serious sexual offences.
The common denominator among those accused was that they were from the powerful families on the island.
"Among many of the perpetrators the lines of power went back historically. It encapsulated more perfectly than many other cases that sexual abuse is a crime of power rather than passion."
Among those eventually convicted was the then mayor of Pitcairn, Steve Christian, and his son, Randy, also a leading official. They are both appealing.
The trial was complicated by the fact that as many of the allegations were against a number of perpetrators, the judge would have to make decisions about the credibility of the same witness in relation to cases against a number of people. So three judges were appointed, with a complicated roster of them hearing different cases involving different personnel, to avoid one case prejudicing another.
A complicated procedural challenge to the prosecution was mounted, which the Privy Council in Britain ruled should be decided by the court in Pitcairn, which was already hearing the substantive case. The verdict and sentences had to be conditional, therefore, on the outcome of the procedural challenge.
The case was heard in Pitcairn, but the witnesses were heard in a studio in Auckland, linked by satellite. Six of the seven accused were convicted, and in May of this year the prosecution won the procedural case, so the sentences, ranging up to six years in jail, were confirmed.
Cases are still pending against defendants living outside Pitcairn.