Former Catholic bishop sentenced for abusing indigenous men in Australia

What the report says

A former Roman Catholic bishop in Australia has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison after being convicted of sexually abusing two young Indigenous men in Western Australia, Al Jazeera reported. The District Court of Western Australia handed down the sentence to 76-year-old Christopher Saunders on Wednesday. He showed no reaction in court, according to the report.

The court earlier found Saunders guilty in August of one count of sexual penetration without consent and 12 counts of indecent assault. The offences were said to have occurred between 2010 and 2019, while he was bishop of Broome, a remote diocese in northwestern Australia. Al Jazeera reported that prosecutors said the victims were groomed and that Saunders would invite young Aboriginal men and teenagers to a beach house or church residence, where they were given alcohol, cigarettes, money and mobile phones.

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, who leads the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, apologized for the harm caused and said the victims’ trust had been deeply betrayed. Saunders, ordained in 1976 and later appointed bishop by Pope John Paul II, suspended his duties in 2020 and resigned in 2021 after the allegations emerged. He has denied the accusations.

The case comes against the backdrop of Australia’s broader reckoning with institutional abuse, including the national Royal Commission into child sexual abuse. That inquiry documented widespread allegations involving churches and other institutions, underscoring why this latest sentencing is significant for Catholic abuse survivors and Indigenous communities.