Former Catholic Bishop of Broome, Christopher Saunders, has been sentenced to six years and six months in prison for sexually abusing two young Indigenous men.
The 76-year-old was sentenced on Wednesday after a Western Australia District Court jury convicted him in August on 13 of 19 sexual abuse charges.
The offences occurred between 2008 and 2019 while Saunders served in the remote Broome Diocese in northwestern Australia.
Saunders was acquitted of six charges involving a third accuser. Four additional charges involving a child under 13 were dropped on the first day of his three-week trial.
He will become eligible for parole in February 2031.
Prosecutors alleged that Saunders lured young Indigenous men to a church-owned residence using alcohol and cigarettes purchased with church funds.
Saunders led the Broome Diocese from 1996 until his resignation in 2021.
The vast diocese covers an area larger than France and has about 50,000 residents, most of whom are Indigenous.
Saunders is among the most senior Australian Catholic clerics convicted in the global clergy sexual abuse scandal.
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said the sentence reflected the seriousness of Saunders’ offences and their impact on the victims.
He apologised to the victims and survivors, saying their trust had been “directly and profoundly betrayed” by a Church leader.
The Vatican began investigating Saunders in 2022 and later handed its findings to Western Australia Police in 2023. Police charged him in 2024.
