Cheek will face a sentencing hearing in February and was granted bail in the meantime with strict conditions, including that he not reapply for a passport and must stay away from airports, and must not have any contact with children or his victims.

Judge Ronald Birmingham said imprisonment was likely and told defence counsel Michael Perrella he had his work cut out for him to persuade him otherwise.

He also commented that while Cheek was nearing the end of his life, the victims were enduring a lifetime of effects from Cheek's offending and had to carry that burden.

Cheek was first charged after a victim came forward saying he was 15 in 1985 when Cheek undressed him and rubbed his body against him.

After the case was reported in the media, four more men contacted police, but none of them knew each other.

The abuse occurred in Perth, Albany and two small country towns in WA's south.

One victim testified during the trial that on his first day as an altar boy in 1976 at the age of eight or nine, Cheek stripped him naked and placed a robe on him, touching his genitals with his hands and the tassels of the waist rope.

The victim said it happened every Sunday for a few years and it made him feel uncomfortable, but Cheek referred to the Bible and said it was tradition for a priest to dress an altar boy.