[To see our complete list of accused bishops, click here.]
Bishop of Broome diocese 1996-2021. Resigned 8/28/2021 at age 71.
On 3/11/2020, 7News in Australia broke the story that 18 months earlier, in October 2018, two young Aboriginal men had filed reports with Western Australia police alleging sexual abuse by Saunders. The Catholic Professional Standards board also had been notified of the allegations in October 2018. (We would later learn that the victims were assisted in coming forward by Fr. John Purnell, a priest in the Broome diocese who is also a survivor of clergy sex abuse.)
Within hours of the 7News broadcast on 3/11/2020, the metropolitan archbishop, Timothy Costelloe of Perth, issued a communique saying that the Holy See had sent an investigator to Broome and that Saunders, then age 70, had “voluntarily” stepped aside from running the diocese. (Saunders stepped aside 3/9/2020, according to the ABC.) Saunders told 7News that he had never abused anyone. In July 2020, the ABC reported that Saunders remained visible in Broome, continuing “in many of his official capacities,” including presiding at funerals. In November 2020, after a second priest publicly complained of Saunders’ continued activities in the diocese, Archbishop Costelloe announced that the Vatican had ordered Saunders to leave the diocese for six months, an order that he reportedly ignored.
In May 2021, the news media reported that the police had submitted their findings to prosecutors in late 2020, and that prosecutors had decided not to charge Saunders with any crimes.
On 8/28/2021, the Vatican’s daily Bulletin announced the Pope’s acceptance of Saunders’ resignation at age 71; no reason was given. In an open letter, Saunders acknowledged no wrongdoing or even controversy; he said he was leaving for reasons of health.
In February 2022, the ABC reported that the Vatican had launched a second probe into Saunders, this time under the procedures of Vos estis lux mundi. (An earlier church investigation, to which Archbishop Costelloe had alluded in March 2020, had been an “apostolic visitation,” looking into issues other than sexual abuse, so as to avoid interfering with the police investigation, the church said.) In September 2022, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane and acting administrator of Broome, Bishop Michael Morrisey, wrote in an open letter to Broome parishioners that a Vos estis investigation of Saunders was “underway,” and that Coleridge had been appointed to head it. The letter noted that Coleridge had ordered Saunders to live outside the Broome diocese for the duration of the investigation.
On 9/18/2023, 7News reported that it had obtained a leaked copy of the secret 200-page Vos estis report that had been sent to the Vatican the previous April. According to 7News, the report said that witnesses described Saunders as “a sexual predator that seeks to prey upon vulnerable Aboriginal men and boys.” The Vos estis report also said that four victims of sexual assault by Saunders had been identified, and “67 additional Aboriginal boys and men were also identified as persons that may have been subjected to delictual acts or grooming behaviors by Bishop Saunders.” Saunders groomed young Aboriginal males by plying them with alcohol and cash, the report said, and he allegedly had been perpetrating sexual assault throughout his 45-year priesthood; one victim identified by the investigators was allegedly abused in 1976, the year Saunders was ordained. Within a day or two of the 7News broadcast, the Western Australia police asked church officials to send them the 200-page report. On 9/22/2023, the bishops’ conference issued a statement saying that they had done so. It also said that none of the alleged victims cited in the Vos estis report were under age 18.
In January 2024, police raided Saunders’ residence and questioned him. On 2/21/2024, police arrested Saunders at his home, charging him with 26 crimes, including 19 sexual offenses: two counts of sexual penetration without consent, three counts of indecent dealings with a child, and 14 counts of unlawful and indecent assault. According to the ABC, the sexual assaults charges relate to one victim, whose alleged abuse began in 2008 when he was age 16 or 17 and continued for several years.
Saunders was charged with sexual crimes against other victims throughout 2024 and in 2025:
- He was charged in April 2024 with two new counts of unlawful and indecent assault, occurring in 2016. The victim was age 21 or 22.
- In September, Saunders pled not guilty to the 21 sex crimes with which he had been charged to date.
- In December, he was charged with five counts of unlawful and indecent assault of a 24-year-old man in 2016.
- In late January 2025, Saunders was arrested again and charged with six additional crimes, this time of a young child: one count of sexual penetration of a child under the age of 13, three counts of indecent dealings with a child under 13 years old, and two counts of common assault. The alleged offenses occurred in 2009 and 2010 in Broome.
In June 2025, the bishop pled guilty to seven charges related to inadequate storing and licensing of firearms and ammunition.
On 7/21/2026, Saunders went on trial for 26 of his charged crimes, allegedly committed against three victims. As best we can tell, the trial is covering: 1) his 19 alleged crimes that began in 2008 against the 16-year-old; 2) the two counts of unlawful and indecent assault in 2016 against the victim aged 21 or 22; and 3) the five counts of unlawful and indecent assaults against the 24-year-old man in 2016. The rape and other assaults of the child under 13 with which he was charged in January 2025 do not appear to be addressed by this trial. On the second day of the trial, Saunders’ lawyer said that Saunders denies the allegations.
The canonical case against Saunders reportedly is suspended, pending the outcome of the trial. In the meantime, he remains bishop emeritus of Broome.