Murder trial on Bounty island

A New Zealand chef accused of killing an Australian woman appeared yesterday at a hearing to determine whether he should face trial in the first murder in over a century on Norfolk Island.

Glenn McNeill, a 28-year-old father of two, did not enter a plea after the hearing began in an old stone court house on the tiny former British penal colony, now an Australian territory about 1,600 km east of tropical Queensland state.

The March 2002 killing of Janelle Patton shocked the island's tight-knit community of about 1,800 residents, many of them descendants of a small band of 18th-century English mutineers who rebelled against Captain William Bligh aboard the Bounty. In fact the current community is made up of descendants of the Bounty who petitioned Queen Victoria when Pitcairn became too small to hold their growing numbers. In 1914, the island was placed under the authority of Australia, and in 1979 it was empowered to elect its own parliament.

A police investigation lasting almost four years included the mass fingerprinting of islanders. At a 2004 inquest, police identified 16 people of interest but said there was no evidence to suggest their guilt.

Mr McNeill is accused of killing Patton, a 29-year-old from Sydney, who worked as a hotel restaurant manager, while she was out walking on the ruggedly beautiful island.

Ms Patton's body, which suffered 64 separate injuries including a fractured skull and numerous stab wounds, was found several hours later wrapped in black plastic at a local landmark.