Hillsong founder Brian Houston is found not guilty of concealing his father’s sexual abuse of a child

Hillsong founder Brian Houston has been found not guilty of covering up the sexual abuse of a boy by his pedophile father in Sydney in the 1970s.

Frank Houston began abusing Brett Sengstock, now 69, when he was a seven-year-old child.

Brian Houston later confronted his father when he found out, telling members of the Assemblies of God churches at an emergency meeting at Sydney Airport.

Frank Houston confessed and was removed from office in late 1999, but Mr. Houston did not report his father to authorities.

Following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Brian Houston was charged with concealing a serious crime.

Houston, 69, denied the charges, claiming he had failed to provide police with details of his father Frank Houston’s crimes.

Mr. Houston argued that he did not report his father’s abuse to the police because he did not believe Mr. Sengstock wanted to.

He also suggested that by then Mr Sengstock was an adult who could have reported the abuse himself.

Following the long-running trial in Sydney’s Downing Center local court, magistrate Gareth Christofi found Mr Houston not guilty on Thursday.

“Victims of sexual abuse should feel safe to confide in others without fear of exposing them to a criminal offense,” said Christofi.

Mr Houston’s legal team had argued that the Pentecostal minister had a “reasonable excuse” for not coming forward because of the wishes of his father’s victim.

Mr Sengstock said he never told Mr Houston that he did not want the abuse reported, which was a point of contention at the hearing.

But Mr Christofi said regardless of what Mr Sengstock told Mr Houston, the Hillsong leader had been informed by others about the attitude of the abuse survivor.

The prosecution said Mr. Houston had used a convenient excuse not to report the matter to authorities to protect both Church and his father.

Mr. Christofi said proving that claim beyond a reasonable doubt was “a tall order indeed.”

It was also alleged that Houston had used vague language when speaking publicly about his father’s abuse and removal as a minister.

Mr Houston may have been ‘euphemistic’ when speaking to thousands of people, but it was clear what he was talking about and anyone wondering just had to ask around, Mr Christofi said.

The fact that he spoke “broadly and freely” about his father’s abuse in public at all indicated that he wanted people to know.

“That’s the exact opposite of a cover-up,” Christofi said.

Mr Sengstock was sexually assaulted by Frank Houston at his family’s Coogee home in Sydney while Frank Houston was touring Australia over 50 years ago.

Mr. Sengstock was seven years old at the time, and Frank Houston, then a New Zealand minister, was a good friend of his parents.

The prosecution alleged that from late 1999, when Brian Houston learned of his father’s pedophilia, until Frank Houston’s death in 2004, Brian Houston failed to disclose the information to authorities.

Mr Sengstock told the court during his testimony that he did not reveal the abuse until he was 16, when he told his mother.

In November 1998, Mr. Sengstock’s mother, Rose Hardingham, told other Church members, including Barbara Taylor and Kevin “Mad Dog” Mudford, the court heard.

From there, Brian Houston was made aware of his father’s crime.

Mr. Houston’s lawyer, Phillip Boulten SC, argued that there was evidence that Mr. Sengstock did not want to participate in a church or police investigation and that allegations of a cover-up were ‘unfair’.

According to Mr. Houston’s defense, he has made numerous public statements, in interviews and in public sermons, about his father’s crimes prior to Frank Houston’s death in 2004.

His defense argued that there were thousands of people – including police officers – who knew about Frank Houston’s offense because of Brian Houston’s revelations.

The prosecution argued that those addresses used “watered-down” language, such as “serious moral failure.”

In a video played at the trial, Mr. Houston addressed the 2002 Hillsong conference at Sydney’s SuperDome and told the 18,000-strong crowd, “One of my associates came into my office and started telling me a story that my own father, who is my hero, was accused of sexual abuse over 30 years ago while still a minister in New Zealand.

“And I must tell you that what was said left me so stunned, so stunned, I could hardly believe what I was hearing… The best way I can describe it was like fighter jets flying into the twin towers of my soul.” ‘

Brian Houston learned of his father’s crime through his business manager George Aghajanian before confronting his father in his office at his church, the Hills Christian Life Center, which would later become Hillsong.

Mr. Houston, during his testimony, described it as a “tense” and “awkward” 45-minute encounter in which his father admitted to abusing Mr. Sengstock.

“He just said ‘that’s done,'” Houston told the court.

“He told me it only happened once, he told me it was about stroking his genitals. He was, I think, a mixture of embarrassed, humiliated, embarrassed, remorseful.’

Mr. Houston told the court that he told his father at the meeting that his credentials as a minister would be revoked and that he would never preach again.

Brian Houston told a crowd of thousands of followers in 2002 about his father’s sexual abuse of a young boy.

In late 1999, the National Executive of the Assemblies of God was convened for an emergency meeting at Sydney Airport to discuss revelations about Frank Houston.

According to the minutes of that meeting, the AOG board had taken legal advice stating that it should not report the matter to the police, as Mr. Sengstock was by then in his 30s and could file his own complaint.

The prosecution argued that legal advice must have been provided by Brian Houston as part of a cover-up.

However, Mr. Houston’s legal team argued that another member of the AOG board, Wayne Alcorn, knew about Frank Houston’s violation before the meeting and may have been the source of the advice.

More to come.