Western Australia's District Court sentenced Christopher Saunders, 76, to six years and six months after an August jury convicted him on 13 charges involving two Aboriginal men.
Former Bishop of Broome Christopher Saunders was sentenced on Wednesday to six years and six months in prison, WAtoday reported from Perth. Saunders, 76, was convicted by a Western Australia District Court jury in August on 13 charges of sexual abuse of two Aboriginal men.
The Washington Post reported that the jury convicted him on 13 of 19 charges covering conduct between 2008 and 2019 in the Broome diocese. WAtoday placed the offences between 2010 and 2019 and said the two men were Catholics in the Kimberley diocese where Saunders was the senior Catholic. The most serious conviction was rape, the paper said. This brief does not describe the acts.
Judge Martin Flynn said Saunders will be eligible for parole after four and a half years and backdated the sentence to 12 August. He said the two men had been resilient and factual and had given remarkably similar evidence about gatherings and the way the offending occurred, WAtoday reported.
The sentence follows a three-week trial. Saunders is now among the most senior Australian Catholic clergy convicted of sexual abuse, WAtoday said. The Washington Post identified the court as the District Court of Western Australia.
No appeal was reported in the Wednesday accounts. The sentence is the new development after the August verdict.
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- Judge Martin Flynn said the two men had been resilient and factual in their evidence.
- He said their testimony about the gatherings was remarkably similar.