An Australian jury has convicted a former Catholic bishop of sexually abusing two young Indigenous men. Christopher Saunders, 76, was found guilty of 13 out of 19 charges of sexual abuse that allegedly occurred between 2008 and 2019 in his diocese on the country’s tropical northwest coast.
Abuse Allegations
Prosecutors alleged that Saunders lured young Indigenous men to his church-owned house with free alcohol and cigarettes paid for with church funds. The house rules included that the male-only guests had to remove their shirts. The convictions included one count of sexual penetration without consent and a dozen indecent assaults.
Saunders is one of the most senior Australian Catholics to be convicted in a global clergy abuse scandal that has besieged the Vatican for years. The Vatican began its own investigation into Saunders in 2022 and handed the Western Australia Police Force a 200-page report on its findings the following year.
Original reporting: Alexandria, VA News – WTOP News — read the source article.
