Bishop allegedly told Aboriginal teen: 'No one is going to know'

Aaron Bunch (AAP) Published July 23, 2026 at 3.25pm (AWST)

Warning: this report includes references to abuse.

A senior Catholic cleric gave a young Aboriginal man alcohol before coercing him to have sex, a court has been told.

Former Bishop of Broome Christopher Alan Saunders is fighting a slew of sexual assault charges at trial in the West Australian District Court.

The retired clergyman, 76, is accused of sexually abusing multiple young Aboriginal men in the Kimberley from 2008 to 2017.

One of his alleged victims told the court on Thursday he called the then-bishop because he wanted the clergyman to book him a ticket on a Greyhound bus from Kununurra to Broome.

"He said he was happy to hear my voice and was thinking about me or something like that," the witness, now a man, said.

The pair agreed to meet at a Kununurra hotel with a bottle shop after the roving bishop had given mass in the town.

"He took me to the room ... and he put his hand down onto my private and started to grab it and fiddle around," the witness, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said.

"He gave me a kiss on the lips and a strong bear hug"

Asked if he wanted to be touched by Saunders in this way, the man, who was about 18 at the time, said: "Not really ... if I rejected him, he'd feel really bad about it."

"I just went along with it and let him do as he pleased," he said.

Later, the then-teen and Saunders, who was known as Brother B to the Aboriginal youths he spent time with, went to a location near a lake where they consumed alcohol together.

Feeling drunk, the teen laid down.

Saunders joined him on a mattress and allegedly touched the then-teen's private body parts as he struggled against the clergyman.

"I said: 'Come on, my brother, I'm too drunk'," the man said.

"I tried to push his head away.

"He looked back at me and said: 'Come on, my brother, just you and me'.

"He kept saying, 'No one is going to know'."

On another alcohol-fuelled occasion at a beach house near Broome, Saunders allegedly grabbed the man's hand and had him perform a sex act on the clergyman.

"He was like: 'Good, my brother, it's really nice'," he said.

The man said he forcefully protested and the bishop told him to watch his language.

"I just wanted to punch him in the face," he said.

Asked why he did it, the man responded: "I was drunk and doing the things he wanted me to do ... just to please him, I think".

Afterwards, Saunders gave the man alcohol and cigarettes and told him he was "one of my best", the jury heard.

Prosecutor Adam Ebell previously told the court that Saunders hosted alcohol-fuelled parties to get access to Aboriginal boys and men so he could sexually assault them.

"He gave them food, alcohol and cigarettes using funds owned by the Catholic Church," he said during his opening remarks.

Saunders denies the claims.

He faces 26 charges related to three alleged victims.

The trial continues.

Australian Associated Press

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National Indigenous Times

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