Christopher Saunders arrested at his house in Broome

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The former Bishop of Broome, Christopher Saunders will face court today, charged with 19 offences, after being arrested at his Kimberley home.

Transcript

00:00 Bishop Christopher Saunders is 74 years old and for decades he's been one of the best

00:07 known figures up here in the Kimberley region.

00:09 He was actually ordained a priest here in Broome in 1976 and for the almost 30 years

00:15 has actually been the bishop, so responsible for this very large area that takes in nine

00:20 parishes, very remote.

00:22 Many of those parishes are actually former Catholic missions, so the Catholic Church

00:25 is very influential here in the local Aboriginal communities.

00:29 It was about four years ago Ruby that allegations first surfaced early 2020 of sexual assault

00:36 allegations made by several young Indigenous men.

00:40 Now Bishop Saunders has always denied any wrongdoing.

00:44 Subsequently there have been several different both WA police investigations and internal

00:49 Catholic Church investigations.

00:53 The initial police investigation was closed about two years ago without any charges being

00:58 laid.

00:59 Things kicked off again late last year with a fresh criminal investigation.

01:04 Things came to a bit of a head late yesterday afternoon here in Broome just as a tropical

01:08 storm was about to sweep through town.

01:12 Police went into Bishop Saunders' property in suburban Broome, brought him out, put him

01:18 into a police van and he was arrested.

01:20 We've since been able to confirm that he is facing 19 criminal charges.

01:25 They are three counts of indecently dealing with a child, two counts of sexual penetration

01:30 without consent, that is of an adult, and the remainder are unlawful and indecent assault

01:37 charges.

01:38 So Erin, what's happening in Broome today?

01:43 Well we're here at the Broome courthouse.

01:46 We were expecting Bishop Saunders to appear at about nine o'clock this morning.

01:51 That appearance has been delayed.

01:52 We understand he did spend last night in police custody.

01:55 The initial decision was made by police to deny him bail.

01:59 That however we presume will be reconsidered at this first scheduled court appearance,

02:04 which we understand is due now at 11.30 WA time.

02:09 It's not expected he will be entering a charge at this stage, but we have to wait and see

02:13 whether police will apply to actually deny him bail and what his legal representation

02:20 will be.

02:21 There's been a very shocked reaction here in the local community, Ruby.

02:27 It's been many, many years of speculation, tabloid headlines, and to get to this point

02:35 with criminal charges being laid in some sense, some people are sort of not as surprised,

02:42 but there have actually been local people turning up here at the courthouse that have

02:45 been watching this case very, very closely.

02:47 As I said, he's a very high profile.

02:49 He's been quite an influential and powerful figure here in the Kimberley region.

02:53 So there's a lot of interest here in the local community, and I guess more broadly in terms

02:57 of the Catholic Church.

03:00 He's quite a senior cleric to be facing such serious charges.

03:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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