(OSV News) — Australian Bishop Christopher Saunders was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison Oct. 7 for abusing two victims who were part of the Indigenous Aboriginal community.

An Australian district court found Bishop Saunders guilty of committing over a dozen counts of sexual abuse against three young Aboriginal men in August. He was acquitted by the jury of alleged offenses against a third young man. Bishop Saunders resigned as bishop of Broome when first accused of wrongdoing in 2020.

According to the BBC, he will be eligible for parole in February 2031.

“His trial in the state of Western Australia heard Saunders systematically groomed the two young men, inviting them to ‘shirts-off’ gatherings and plying them with alcohol, often using church funds and church-owned properties to do so,” the BBC said.

One of his victims wrote in a victim impact statement provided to the court: “I was a toy that he was using,” adding: “I trusted him. I thought he wanted me to be a better person.”

Sentence following August conviction

Bishop Saunders, 76, was convicted Aug. 13 of one count of sexual penetration and 12 counts of indecent assault that were committed while he led the Diocese of Broome.

However, he was found not guilty of six other abuse-related charges.

According to Australian public broadcaster ABC, the victims were part of the Indigenous Aboriginal community residing in the region of Western Australia known as the Kimberley. Prosecutors said that the abuses occurred in several areas, including the bishop’s residence in Broome and a beach house.

He stepped away from administrative duties when the accusations first surfaced and resigned in 2021. During the trial, the bishop’s lawyer, Tony Hager, dismissed the accusations against his client, describing Bishop Saunder’s behavior as “boozy” and “sleazy” but not criminal.

ABC reported that Hager also told the jury that the bishop “wasn’t on trial in Rome” nor “standing before the pope” to justify his pastoral care of the diocese. He also cast doubt on the accusations against the bishop, suggesting that the victims’ memories were affected by alcohol.

Canonical investigation

According to a 2022 statement published by the Australian bishops’ conference, the Vatican opened a canonical investigation into the allegations against Bishop Saunders that year and appointed retired Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane to oversee the process.

Archbishop Coleridge, the statement noted, issued a decree “stipulating that Bishop Saunders is to reside outside the Diocese of Broome for the duration of the investigation.”

A year later, in September 2023, the conference issued a clarification regarding the investigation, including the revelation that “Bishop Saunders refused to leave the diocese and chose not to participate in the Church’s investigation within the deadline of six months initially stipulated by the Vatican.”

“The investigation by the Church included both alleged canonical crimes, as defined by ‘Vos Estis Lux Mundi,’ and alleged breaches of the Church’s Integrity in Ministry protocols,” the conference said.

Published in 2019 and updated in 2023, “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (“You Are the Light of the World”) outlines the Catholic Church’s procedures for investigating allegations of sexual abuse or the cover-up of abuse.

According to the conference, the Church’s investigation was suspended during the police’s investigation and during the trial.

A betrayal of trust

Following the guilty verdict, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth, president of the Australian Bishops’ Conference, issued a statement saying that the abuses committed by Bishop Saunders “represent a betrayal of everything the gospel and the Catholic Church stand for.”

“They are a violation of the human dignity of victims and survivors and a complete betrayal of their trust: these crimes deserve the strongest condemnation,” Archbishop Costelloe wrote.

He also commended the bravery of the survivors and witnesses who came forward, showing “great courage, commitment and resilience through a long and difficult process.”

“The Catholic community in Broome, and more widely in Western Australia and the rest of our nation, owes them a great debt of gratitude,” he wrote. “While the horrors of abuse occur in secret, it is the courage of those who bring these horrors into the open which enables accountability and, through that accountability, the beginning of healing.”

Regarding the canonical investigation against Bishop Saunders, Archbishop Costelloe said that with the conclusion of the trial would recommence.

“Decisions about the position of the former bishop of Broome in the Church will therefore be determined by Rome,” he wrote.