Bishop visited his abuse accuser in jail, jury told
By AARON BUNCH
A former Catholic bishop accused of sexually abusing multiple young Aboriginal men repeatedly visited one of his alleged victims in jail, a court has been told.
Former Bishop of Broome Christopher Alan Saunders is fighting more than two dozen sexual assault charges at trial in the West Australian District Court.
One of his alleged victims says the retired clergyman, 76, visited him on numerous occasions when he was serving time in various prisons.
“The only visitor I had was Brother B,” the man said of a sentence he served at Broome Regional Prison, while referring to Saunders by his nickname.
The jury heard Christopher Alan Saunders was the prison chaplain in Broome. (Aaron Bunch/AAP)
Saunders, who was the chaplain at the Broome prison, often gave the man money so he could call his family from prison and buy items such as cigarettes.
The jury heard the man, now in his 30s, was a serial family violence offender with numerous assault occasioning bodily harm convictions, leading to cumulative sentences of three years and seven months.
The bishop also visited the man at prisons near Derby and in Perth, along with other Kimberley Aboriginal men serving time there.
Under questioning from Saunders’ lawyer Tony Hager, the man struggled to remember his other convictions and jail time.
Now-retired Catholic bishop Christopher Saunders (pictured in 2008) visited Kimberley men in jail. (AP PHOTO)
Some of the convictions were recorded during Saunders’ alleged offending time from 2008 to 2017.
The court previously heard the man had battled drugs and alcohol since he was about 14 and was in custody near Derby for alleged family violence offences.
He agreed with Mr Hager that some parts of his life in the years that followed were a blur due to his consumption of alcohol and drugs.
The man said he met Saunders when he was 16 at the bishop’s Broome home, where he drank alcohol with a group of other boys.
Prosecutors have previously said Saunders put on alcohol-fuelled parties using church funds to get access to Aboriginal boys and men so he could sexually assault them.
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