A retired Catholic bishop in Australia has been charged with rape and child abuse.
Emeritus Bishop Christopher Alan Saunders was on Wednesday, February 21 evening arrested in Western Australia following the conclusion of a high-powered internal Vatican investigation.
The 74-year-old former bishop of Broome is the senior-most Catholic official in Australia to be charged with child sexual offences after Cardinal George Pell.
Police say that Saunders was charged overnight with 19 offences — two counts of sexual penetration without consent (rape), 14 counts of unlawful and indecent assault and three counts of “indecently dealing with a child” between 16 and 18 years old.
These offences, court documents show, took place between 2008 and 2014.
Saunders presided over the Diocese of Broome for more than 20 years before he stepped down in 2020 when allegations of sexual abuse first came up.
The president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Timothy Costelloe said the allegations were “deeply distressing”.
“It is right and proper, and indeed necessary, that all such allegations be thoroughly investigated,” he said in a statement.
Saunders has maintained his innocence.
