Jay Warren was elected mayor of the last remaining British dependency in Oceania in the general election held on 15 December 2004,[1] defeating Brenda Christian, who had held the mayoralty in an interim capacity following the dismissal from the post of her brother, Steve Christian, by the British authorities on 30 October 2004, following his rape convictions.
Warren was expected to take up his duties sometime around Christmas, when he was to return from Tahiti, where his daughter Darylynn was hospitalized and recovering from a longboat accident in which her arm was nearly severed.
As magistrate throughout most of the 1990s, Warren had executive, legislative, and judicial authority, serving ex officio as chairman of the Island Council, which doubles as the dependency's legislature and court.
"We appointed Jay as chairman of the (island's) internal committee in the period after the trials and before this election," Forbes told Radio New Zealand from his office at the British High Commission (the equivalent of an embassy in Commonwealth countries) in Wellington.
[5] He is the brother of Meralda Warren, who has also held political office and is one of the most vocal defenders of the islanders' traditional acceptance and practice of sexual activity from puberty onwards.