Australian Ex-Bishop Christopher Saunders Gets Prison Term for Abusing Indigenous Men

A former Catholic bishop in Australia, Christopher Saunders, 76, was sentenced Wednesday to six years and six months in prison for sexually abusing two young Indigenous men, according to ABC News and Al Jazeera. ABC News reported that he will be eligible for parole in February 2031.

The case is one of the most senior convictions of an Australian Catholic figure in the global clergy abuse scandal. The District Court of Western Australia handled the case, and a jury convicted Saunders in August.

What the court found

ABC News reported that the jury convicted Saunders of 13 of 19 charges. Al Jazeera described the convictions as one count of sexual penetration without consent and 12 counts of indecent assault. The two outlets give different periods for the offenses: ABC News said 2008 to 2019, while Al Jazeera said 2010 to 2019. Both say they happened while he led the Broome Diocese in the country's northwest.

The jury acquitted him of six charges involving a third accuser. ABC News said those charges concerned indecent dealing with a child over 16. Western Australia's age of consent is 16, but the law raises it to 18 when an older person holds a position of trust, power or responsibility. Four charges involving a child younger than 13 were dropped on the first day of the three-week trial.

Al Jazeera reported that Saunders showed no reaction at the sentencing hearing.

What prosecutors alleged and what Saunders said

Prosecutors alleged that Saunders lured young Indigenous men to a church-owned house with alcohol and cigarettes bought with church funds, ABC News reported. Al Jazeera said the court heard he groomed his victims, inviting young Aboriginal men and teenagers to a beach house or church residence and giving them alcohol, cigarettes, money and mobile phones. It added that the assaults on the two young men reportedly took place while they were heavily intoxicated.

Al Jazeera reported that Saunders has consistently denied the allegations.

The church's response

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said in a statement that the sentence recognized the gravity of the offenses and their profound impact on victims and survivors. He apologized to them for the pain they suffered and said their trust was betrayed by a leader of the Church.

How the case developed

• Saunders led the Broome Diocese from 1996 until he resigned in 2021, according to ABC News. Al Jazeera said he suspended his duties in 2020 and that Pope Francis accepted his resignation in August 2021.
• The Vatican began investigating in 2022 and gave police a report on its findings the next year, ABC News reported. Police charged Saunders in 2024.
• The report was never made public, but ABC News said its findings were leaked to Australia's Seven Network, which reported that Saunders likely sexually assaulted four Indigenous youths and potentially groomed another 67 Indigenous youths and men.

Why it matters for the Church and the region

The diocese covers an area larger than France but has only 50,000 people, and most of its Catholics are Indigenous, ABC News reported. The sentence is a rare criminal outcome that has held up so far for a senior Australian Catholic leader. ABC News noted that Cardinal George Pell and Archbishop Philip Wilson were also convicted but successfully appealed.

Al Jazeera put the case in the context of Australia's Royal Commission into institutional child sexual abuse, set up in 2013. In 2017 it reported that seven percent of Catholic priests were accused of abusing children between 1950 and 2010, and that 4,444 alleged incidents had been reported to church authorities. The sources do not say whether Saunders plans to appeal.

Sources: ABC News, Al Jazeera