Australian bishop testifies for prosecution in former Broome bishop’s abuse trial
Bishop Morrissey of the Diocese of Geraldton testified in the sex abuse trial of Bishop Christopher Saunders.
An Australian bishop has appeared in court as a witness for the prosecution in the trial of the former head of the neighboring diocese on charges of sexual abuse.
Bishop Michael Morrissey of the Diocese of Geraldton appeared in court to give evidence in the trial of Bishop Christopher Saunders, the former leader of the Diocese of Broome on Monday, August 4, in Perth, Western Australia.
Bishop Saunders led the Broome diocese from 1996 until 2021, when he stepped down citing “ill health” amid allegations of grooming and sexual abuse of young Aboriginal men. He has since been charges with 19 counts of sexual abuse, as well as pleading guilty to multiple firearms charges last year.
On Monday, Bishop Morrissey was called as a witness by prosecutors and answered questions on “Integrity in Ministry,” a document first issued in 2004 by the Australian bishops’ conference outlining principles and standards for clergy in the country.
Morrissey was specifically asked about the allegations that Saunders used alcohol as a means of grooming and assaulting young men and minors. While Morrissey said he could conceive of offering some kind of pastoral contact in informal situations “over a beer,” he would never provide “pastoral care” to someone who appeared to be intoxicated, nor involve alcohol in a one-on-one pastoral setting, WAToday reported.
It is believed to be the first occasion a serving diocesan bishop has appeared as a witness for the prosecution in the criminal trial of another bishop charged with sexual abuse. After Saunders stepped down from ministry, Morrissey was appointed apostolic administrator of the Broome diocese until Saunders’ successor was appointed in 2025.
Lawyers for Saunders argued that even though the document was issued by the bishops’ conference, of which he was a member at the time of the allegations, it did not represent a binding “one-size-fits-all” code of conduct. The bishop denies all criminal charges.
Lead prosecutor Adam Ebell had previously told the trial that Saunders was sexually attracted to Aboriginal males and invited them to “alcohol-fueled” parties at Church properties across the state’s Kimberley region.
The prosecutor said the dress code at the parties was “shirts off” and there was a “seemingly endless supply of alcohol and cigarettes,” bought using Church funds.
The prosecutor alleged that Saunders used boxing and wrestling as a “subterfuge” to engage in physical contact with the young men.
Most of the charges reportedly concern one alleged victim, who was 16 when the claimed sexual contact began and 19 when it ended. According to the prosecutor, the young man “felt shame” at what had occurred but “felt like he could not say no.”
Saunders is also accused of committing offenses against a 24-year-old man and another man who was in his late teens. The jury heard that additional men would give evidence about their encounters with Saunders, though these encounters did not result in charges.
The court has also been shown surveillance footage of Saunders, covertly recorded at his home in Broome in 2024. The footage, which did not lead to any charges, reportedly showed Saunders and another man shirtless and drinking, resting their feet on each other’s laps.
Also in court on Monday to appear for the prosecution was Saunders’ former assistant Cherrille Quilty, who told the trial that she was tasked by the bishop with processing for purchase cell phones and alcohol running into the thousands of dollars, allegedly used as gifts for young men.
In a 2024 interview with The Pillar, Quilty said that she was among the first to raise a criminal complaint against the bishop, whom she also accused of abusive bullying as an employer.
She also said that there was “a list of names on the wall in the secretary’s office with victims, potential victims, and their bank account details,” and that “was ostensibly for the payment of men who had done ‘odd jobs’ for the bishop.”
“It wasn’t for odd jobs, I can tell you that now,” she told The Pillar. “It was hush money. One of the first victims that came forward was the one that I paid most frequently and it was to shut him up.”
“You didn’t dare ask why [Saunders] was paying them. Didn’t dare. He wasn’t the sort of person you would ever cross or ask him anything… And he would make me drop whatever I was doing to go to the bank, get petty cash out, go to the bank, and bank that money immediately.”
Saunders formally resigned from office as bishop of the Broome diocese in 2021 after stepping back from governance of the diocese in 2020, after accusations surfaced that he had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of Church funds on gifts for vulnerable young men, including cash, phones, alcohol, and travel.
The bishop was arrested and charged after a second police investigation was opened in 2024 into accusations against Saunders. That investigation followed a previous police inquiry, closed in 2021, which filed no charges for lack of evidence, but the case was reopened after law enforcement authorities were given a copy of the results of an internal Church investigation conducted under the norms of Vos estis lux mundi.
Previous statements from the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference have said that Saunders’ case is before the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome and he is charged with “alleged canonical crimes, as defined by Vos estis lux mundi, and alleged breaches of the Church’s Integrity in Ministry protocols.”
Leaked portions of the report produced by the Church’s investigation, which triggered the renewed police action against the bishop last year, identified a pattern of behavior by Saunders consistent with grooming dozens of young men over a period of decades.
According to media reports on the leaked text, one man told Vatican-commissioned investigators that Saunders had employed him to do gardening work at his residence and offered him the use of his shower afterwards. According to the alleged victim, the bishop then climbed into the shower with him.
“I was scared. He was a big fella and I was just a teenager at the time,” he told investigators, and that the bishop subsequently started showering him with gifts of cash, phones, cigarettes and alcohol.
Another man testified that Saunders threw so-called “bunga bunga parties,” to which only male guests were invited and at which he saw the bishop ask attendees to strip, and kiss and grope young guests.
“The bishop has been variously described by witnesses as … a sexual predator that seeks to prey upon vulnerable Aboriginal men and boys,” the report said.
Following his resignation and the opening of the Vos estis investigation, Saunders was ordered by the Vatican to reside outside the diocese, a directive he ignored, continuing to live in a Church-owned house in Broome and to exercise considerable influence over diocesan affairs. By December 2023, Saunders was still listed as the “responsible person” for nine Catholic charities in his former diocese, several of which are affiliated with local parishes.
The Broome diocese covers the Kimberley and Pilbara regions of the sparsely populated state of Western Australia, serving around 15,000 Catholics out of a total population of 44,000 people.
Bishop Timothy Norton, S.V.D., was installed as the new Bishop of Broome on Dec. 4, 2024.
Australian media said Norton stressed that the Broome diocese would continue to cooperate with police amid an ongoing investigation.
“Accordingly, no further comment will be made regarding the former bishop of Broome until such time as all legal proceedings are concluded,” he said.
“The protection of children and adults at risk remains our highest priority. We encourage anyone who has experienced abuse, or suspects abuse within the community, to come forward and report it to police.”