Christopher Saunders, a former Catholic bishop of Broome in Western Australia, has been sentenced to six years and six months in prison for sexually abusing two young Aboriginal men. The case was heard in the West Australian district court, not in a German court. The 76-year-old will be eligible for parole in February 2031. The sentence is backdated to August, when a jury convicted him and he was taken into custody.

The jury found Saunders guilty of 13 offences: one count of rape (described in court as sexual penetration without consent) and 12 counts of indecent assault. The offending took place over roughly a decade, between about 2008 and 2019, depending on the account. He was acquitted of charges relating to a third young man, as well as of several other counts. Judge Martin Flynn said Saunders had "disregarded the dignity" of his victims and caused them lasting harm. In a victim impact statement, one of the men said: "I was a toy that he was using."

Prosecutors argued that Saunders, known to his victims as "Brother B", systematically groomed the men. They said he invited them to "shirts-off" gatherings and gave them alcohol at parties held at church-owned properties, often using church funds. The prosecution said he had a sexual interest in young Aboriginal men and acted on it when the chance arose. The abuse took place at his home, in motels and at a church holiday house.

Saunders was ordained a priest in 1976 and spent most of his career in the remote Kimberley region, in Australia's far north-west. He became Bishop of Broome in 1996, leading a diocese of about 770,000 square kilometres, roughly the size of Turkey, with 13 schools and nine parishes. He stepped aside in 2020 when the allegations became public, and Pope Francis accepted his resignation a year later. An initial police investigation was closed without charge. A new one began after the Pope ordered a rare inquiry under the "Vos Estis Lux Mundi" rules, introduced in 2019 to hold bishops accountable for abuse.

Archbishop of Perth Timothy Costelloe said the men who came forward had shown great courage and resilience. "We are sorry that your trust was so directly and profoundly betrayed by a leader of the church," he said, adding that no sentence could undo the suffering caused. The church's own investigation, paused while police worked, will now restart. Its findings will inform Rome's decision on Saunders' remaining title and ministry powers, which the church is under pressure to remove.

The case matters because of Saunders' seniority. Unless he succeeds on appeal, he will be the highest-ranking Catholic in Australia convicted of sexual abuse. The late Cardinal George Pell was convicted in 2018 but later cleared by the High Court.