An Australian court has sentenced former bishop Christopher Saunders to six and a half years in prison. He was sentenced for the sexual abuse and rape of two Aboriginal young men while he held office in the Catholic Church. The 76-year-old was a senior religious leader. The District Court of Western Australia passed the sentence on Wednesday, BBC online reports.
At a court hearing in August, Saunders was found guilty of one charge of rape and 12 of sexual assault. The charges said that between 2010 and 2019 he used church funds and his own property to ply young men regularly with alcohol, invited them to various events and repeatedly abused them sexually. One victim said in a written statement to the court: “He used me like a toy. To this day my head splits with that unbearable pain.” Saunders, who began as a priest in 1976, was appointed Bishop of Broome in 1996.
He resigned as bishop after allegations first surfaced in 2020. Police closed the case then for lack of evidence, but began a fresh inquiry after a special investigation was opened on the Pope’s own orders under the Vatican’s Vos estis lux mundi rules. After the verdict, the Archbishop of Perth, Timothy Costelloe, praised the victims’ courage and apologised.
He said the church would send a recommendation to the Vatican to strip Saunders of his remaining religious titles and powers. Saunders is the most senior Australian Catholic leader after the late Cardinal George Pell to be convicted of such sexual offences.
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