An Australian Catholic bishop has appeared in court accused of raping and sexually abusing Aboriginal children living in remote communities scattered across a vast outback region.
Christopher Saunders, a retired bishop, was charged with 19 offences, including two of rape, 14 of unlawful and indecent assault and three of indecently dealing with a child, following a Vatican investigation.
For nearly 50 years, he worked in isolated communities in the far north of Western Australia, where his diocese was bigger than Texas.
He was arrested on Wednesday and appeared on Thursday in a magistrates court in Broome, a coastal town which is one of the main hubs of the region.
He indicated that he would plead not guilty to all the charges.
Saunders, 74, has consistently denied allegations that he sexually assaulted and groomed young Aboriginal men in isolated communities across the sparsely populated north of Western Australia.
But he stepped down as bishop of the region when the allegations emerged in 2020, although he retains the honorary title of “emeritus bishop”. Pope Francis accepted his resignation in 2021.
The Vatican launched an investigation a year later.
It became public knowledge last year when an Australian television news network reported the contents of a 200-page Vatican report on Saunders.
Western Australia police obtained a copy of the report and reopened a criminal investigation into Saunders, after an earlier police inquiry had failed to find enough evidence to charge him.
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said the accusations against Saunders were “very serious and deeply distressing.”
Saunders was ordained a priest in 1976 and became a bishop in 1996.
The allegations date back to 2008 and cover abuse that was allegedly carried out in remote towns such as Kalumburu and Kununurra.
He was released on bail on a bond of A$10,000, was instructed to stay living at his home in Broome and will next appear in court in June.
Saunders is one of the most senior Catholics in Australia to be accused of sex abuse.
Cardinal George Pell was the third highest-ranking cleric in the Vatican when he was convicted in an Australian court in 2018 of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in Melbourne cathedral in 1996, when he was an archbishop.
He spent 13 months in prison before the convictions were overturned on appeal. He maintained his innocence until his death in Rome last year.
