Trial of former Broome bishop begins
Bishop Christopher Saunders’ trial is scheduled to last three weeks
The criminal trial of 76-year-old Australian Bishop Christopher Saunders on historic sexual abuse charges began this week, with the bishop facing the prospect of lengthy incarceration if convicted.
Saunders, who served as Bishop of Broome, Western Australia, from 1996 until his resignation in 2021, is facing 26 charges of sexual offenses against three young Aboriginal men. He denies the charges.
The trial, which is scheduled to last three weeks, opened July 21 at the District Court of Western Australia in Perth.
Prosecutor Adam Ebell told the court that Saunders was sexually attracted to Aboriginal males and invited them to “alcohol-fueled” parties at Church properties across the state’s Kimberley region, Australia’s ABC News reported.
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 was 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.
On July 22, the second day of the trial, Saunders’ lawyer said in his opening statement that his client denied all charges, ABC News reported. Tony Hager also urged jurors not to be swayed by possible prejudice against the Catholic Church.
Hager stressed that Saunders was not on trial for his “unorthodox socializing” in 2024 and argued that the case came down to “someone’s saying one thing and another person’s saying another.”
One of the alleged victims, who is now in his 30s, spoke via video link. He described incidents in which the bishop wrestled with him, tried to kiss him, and urged him to touch Saunders’ “privates.” He said he felt obliged to agree because Saunders was “the boss.”
The trial follows years of controversy surrounding Saunders, who was ordained a priest of the Broome diocese in 1976 and served as its bishop for more than 25 years.
Saunders stepped aside from governing the diocese in 2020 after allegations that he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in Church funds on gifts and other benefits for vulnerable Aboriginal young people, including cash, phones, alcohol, and travel.
He resigned in 2021, at the age of 71, citing ill health, while also facing allegations of sexual misconduct and grooming of young Aboriginal men.
An initial police investigation into the allegations was closed in 2021 due to insufficient evidence. The following year, the Vatican ordered a canonical probe into Saunders’ conduct, the first to take place in Australia under the norms of Pope Francis’ 2019 document Vos estis lux mundi.
The Vatican-ordered inquiry resulted in a 200-page report that Church authorities gave to police, prompting a new criminal investigation that ultimately led to a raid and Saunders’ arrest in 2024.
The findings of the canonical investigation were also forwarded to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, but the Church’s own disciplinary process has been suspended pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings.
The Broome diocese covers the Kimberley and Pilbara regions of the sparsely populated state of Western Australia, serving around 12,000 Catholics. The diocese has eight parishes stretched over an area larger than the U.S. state of Texas.
Bishop Timothy Norton, S.V.D., was installed as the new Bishop of Broome in 2024, ending the diocese’s three-year wait for a new leader.
The trial continues.