A retired Catholic bishop known for hosting boozy parties is now a convicted predator after he was found guilty of sexually abusing two young Aboriginal men.

A jury found Christopher Alan Saunders, 76, guilty of one count of sexual penetration without consent and 12 counts of unlawful and indecent assault following a trial in the West Australian District Court that lasted more than three weeks.

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The former Bishop of Broome was found not guilty of six other charges.

There was no reaction from Saunders in the dock as the verdicts were read out.

Saunders had fought allegations he groomed and abused victims in WA’s Kimberley region, when he was one of the country’s most senior Catholic figures.

Prosecutors said the man known as Brother B by his victims had hosted alcohol-fuelled parties using church funds so he could target the men.

The main complainant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Saunders started grooming him at a Broome home.

The interactions over the decade that followed involved kissing, naked wrestling, touching of private areas and penetrative sex, he said.

Christopher Saunders has been found guilty of abusing young Indigenous men. Credit: 7NEWS

Saunders denied the sexual assaults took place.

His lawyer Tony Hager said the now-retired clergyman does not deny having boozy parties at his Kimberley home where young men often stripped off their shirts and shorts.

“(But) he is not on trial for having (Aboriginal men) at his residence drinking,” he told the court during his closing remarks.

“(And) he is not on trial for misuse of church funds.”

Hagar said his client’s behaviour was at times unusual and boozy, “and it might even be sleazy”, but it wasn’t sexual.

Saunders was ordained as the second Broome bishop in 1996 and presided over 13 schools and nine parishes, before stepping aside in 2020 when the sex abuse claims became public.

Pope Francis accepted his resignation a year later.

Unless acquitted on appeal, Saunders would be the highest-ranking Catholic in Australia convicted of sexual abuse while a member of the clergy.

He will be sentenced at a later date.

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- With reporting from AAP