Christian dismissed the reasoning of Adrian Cook, defence lawyer for the accused, that as the persons responsible for the 1789 Mutiny on the "Bounty" never legally married their Tahitian companions, their children were illegitimate and assumed the nationality of their mothers. Until recent time, the islanders had never emphasized the Polynesian side of their heritage, she said. She also contradicted the defence that underage sex in Pitcairn society has always been regarded as normal. She said that the community traditionally followed values no different from any other modern society.