‘Defrock predator’ calls over Broome bishop

Two church whistleblowers who first raised concerns about the behaviour of Bishop of Broome Christopher Saunders have called for their former leader to be defrocked and excommunicated.

Broome bishop Christopher Saunders.

Two church whistleblowers who first raised concerns about the behaviour of Bishop of Broome Christopher Saunders have called for their former leader to be defrocked and excommunicated following findings that he engaged in sexual abuse and grooming of young Aboriginal men and boys in the Kimberley.

The findings from a church-commissioned investigation into Bishop Saunders, leaked to media this week, described the bishop as a “sexual predator” who sought to “prey upon vulnerable Aboriginal men and boys”.

It alleged the religious leader had spent thousands of dollars of church money each month on cash gifts, mobile phones, alcohol and cigarettes for young Aboriginal males, and that he had hosted “bunga bunga” parties with them at multiple church properties.

The investigation was brought under the Vatican’s Vos Estis Lux Mundi papal inquiry powers, and the findings have since been passed on to the Vatican.

Police originally investigated the allegations after they surfaced in early 2020, but in 2021 decided not to press charges.

Bishop Saunders has always denied wrongdoing, and declined invitations to be interviewed by the investigators.

West Australian police on Tuesday confirmed they had requested a copy of the church-commissioned report, pledging to investigate the allegations again if further information emerged.

The priest who first brought the allegations to light, John Purnell, told The Australian on Tuesday that airing of the investi­gation’s findings had lifted a weight from him.

“I’m glad that after five years of hell, the truth is out; now I just pray for justice,” he said.

Father Purnell, now based in NSW, raised concerns about Bishop Saunders’s behaviour after an Aboriginal man in Halls Creek told him how he had been sexually abused by the bishop since he was 16.

He said he had been targeted by Bishop Saunders and his supporters after he went public with the allegations.

“When I blew the whistle back in 2020, Saunders … came after me like you wouldn’t believe,” he said. “They tried everything you can imagine to bring me down.”

He said while the church had struggled to be transparent over the course of the saga, he believed the Pope was taking the matter seriously and would take action.

He said Bishop Saunders should be laicised and then ­excommunicated.

Matt Digges spent 25 years working as a priest under Bishop Saunders before he was sacked after he had raised concerns about what he thought was the bishop’s “imprudent behaviour”.

He said he felt a profound sadness when reading reports about the investigation’s findings, with the scale of the bishop’s alleged offending going far beyond what he had ever suspected.

“It is horrific, the amount of young lives that have been changed irrevocably because of this alleged behaviour,” he said.

The Catholic Church needed to tighten its oversight of its bishops to prevent the potential for senior leaders to go rogue, he said, while defrocking and excommunication of Bishop Saunders needed to be accompanied by an order for him to leave the ­Kimberley.

“Chris Saunders needs to be required to leave Broome so the Catholic community and the Broome community more broadly can start the healing, which they can’t when the alleged abuser is still in their midst,” he said.

WA Premier Roger Cook, meanwhile, urged the Vatican to pass any evidence collected as part of the church’s investigation on to the authorities. “If they have new information, they should provide that to police so they can consider that as part of any sort of case for prosecution,” he said.

The church-commissioned investigation, carried out by two former police detectives and involving interviews with dozens of witnesses, said police had mishandled an original investigation due to limited resources, a lack of will and evidence gaps around the ages of victims at the time of the alleged offending.

In a statement, WA police said investigations had been completed and resourced in line with agency investigative standards and practices.