Hillsong Founder Brian Houston Not Guilty Of Sex Abuse Cover Up: Sydney Court
Image: Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston and his father Frank Houston
A Sydney Magistrate’s court on Thursday acquitted the founder of the anti-LGBTQI church Hillsong Brian Houston of covering up his father’s sexual abuse of a young boy.
Trigger Warning: This story discusses child sex abuse, which might be distressing to some readers. For 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.
In 2021, NSW police charged Houston of knowing about the sexual abuse of a young man in the 1970s at the hands of his father Frank Houston, but not reporting it to the police.
Houston, the founder of the global megachurch, resigned last year following an internal investigation that found he behaved inappropriately towards two women in the past decade.
A Serial Child Sex Abuser
Houston’s father Frank was accused of sexually abusing young boys when he was a pastor in New Zealand and Australia in the 1960s and 1970s. One of the nine boys had come forward to lodge a complaint that Frank had sexually abused him between the ages of seven and 12.
The victim Brett Sengstock, who waived his right to anonymity, said his mother reported the abuse in 1999 to the Assemblies of God. Houston was the National President of the Assemblies of God and was legally obligated to report the sex abuse allegations against his father to the police.
Frank died in 2004 without facing any criminal charges for his crimes.
Prosecution Alleged A Cover-Up
Magistrate Gareth Christofi ruled that Huston had a “reasonable excuse” for not reporting the matter to the police, reported the ABC. “(The) accused knew or believed on reasonable grounds that Brett Sengstock did not want the matter reported to police,” the magistrate said.
The prosecution accused Houston of a cover-up to protect the Church, but the magistrate did not agree citing his statements speaking about his father’s abuse.
At a hearing last year Houston had described his father as a “serial paedophile”.
Sengstork told reporters outside the court: “Frank Houston was no pioneer for Christianity, his legacy remains a faded memory of a paedophile.”
Anti-Gay Church
Brian founded Hillsong in 1983 in Baulkham Hills, NSW, Australia. Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Kylie and Kendall Jenner and Kourtney Kardashian were among the church’s followers.
In his blog ‘Do I love gay people? Houston outlined the megachurch’s position against same-sex marriages and affirmed a “traditional Christian thought on gay lifestyles and gay marriage. I do believe God’s word is clear that marriage is between a man and a woman.”
