PERTH, Australia — A former Australian Catholic bishop was sentenced Wednesday to six years and six months in prison for sexually abusing two young Indigenous men, reports BritPanorama.
A District Court of Western Australia jury convicted Christopher Saunders, 76, in August of 13 out of 19 charges of sexual abuse that took place between 2008 and 2019 in his Broome Diocese, located in the country’s tropical northwest.
Saunders will be eligible for parole in February 2031. He was acquitted of six charges involving a third accuser, and four charges regarding a child younger than 13 were dropped at the start of his trial.
Saunders is among the highest-ranking Australian Catholic figures convicted in the ongoing global clergy abuse scandal. Cardinal George Pell and Archbishop Philip Wilson are other notable clergy who faced legal challenges, though both successfully appealed their convictions on related charges.
Prosecutors claimed that Saunders used church resources, including alcohol and cigarettes, to lure vulnerable young Indigenous men to his church-owned residence.
Having led the remote Broome Diocese from 1996 until his resignation in 2021, Saunders presided over a region larger than France, home to about 50,000 people, the majority of whom are Indigenous Catholics.
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, acknowledged the severity of Saunders’ offenses and their profound impact on the victims and survivors.
“To each victim and survivor who courageously revealed what they had endured, we want to say this: We are sorry for the pain and suffering that was inflicted on you. We are sorry that your trust was so directly and profoundly betrayed by a leader of the Church,” Costelloe stated.
The Vatican began its investigation into Saunders in 2022 and subsequently submitted a report to the Western Australia Police Force, which led to his charges in 2024. Although the report has not been publicly released, leaks to Australia’s Seven Network indicated that Saunders is believed to have sexually assaulted four Indigenous youths and may have groomed another 67.
