Hillsong founder Brian Houston has been found not guilty of covering up his paedophile father’s sexual abuse of a young boy 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 and told members of the Assemblies of God churches during an urgent meeting at Sydney Airport.
Frank Houston confessed and was defrocked in late 1999, but Mr Houston did not report his father to the authorities.
After the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Brian Houston was charged with concealing a serious indictable offence.
Mr Houston, 69, denied the charge and allegations he failed to pass on details of his father’s Frank Houston’s crimes to police.
Mr Houston argued he did not report his father’s abuse to police because he did not believe Mr Sengstock wanted that to happen.
Hillsong founder Brian Houston has been found not guilty of covering up his paedophile father’s sexual abuse of a young boy in Sydney in the 1970s
He also suggested Mr Sengstock was by then an adult who could have reported the abuse himself.
Following the long-running trial in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court, Magistrate Gareth Christofi found Mr Houston not guilty on Thursday.
‘Victims of sexual abuse ought to feel safe to confide in others without being concerned they are exposing those others to a criminal offence,’ Mr Christofi said.
Mr Houston’s legal team had argued the Pentecostal preacher had a ‘reasonable excuse’ not to come forward because of his father’s victim’s wishes.
Mr Sengstock said he never told Mr Houston he did not want the abuse reported, which was a point of dispute at the hearing.
But Mr Christofi said regardless of what Mr Sengstock told Mr Houston, the Hillsong leader had been told of the abuse survivor’s attitude by others.
The prosecution said Mr Houston had adopted a convenient excuse to avoid reporting the matter to authorities in order to protect both the church and his father.
Mr Christofi said proving that claim beyond reasonable doubt was ‘a tall order indeed’.
It was also submitted Houston had used vague language when he spoke publicly about his father’s abuse and removal as a minister.
Mr Houston might have been ‘euphemistic’ when talking to thousands of people, but it was obvious what he was talking about and anyone left wondering needed only to ask around, Mr Christofi said.
The fact he was speaking ‘widely and freely’ about his father’s abuse publicly at all indicated he wanted people to know.
‘That is the very opposite of a cover-up,’ Mr Christofi said.
Mr Sengstock was sexually assaulted by Frank Houston at his family’s Coogee home in Sydney while Frank Houston was on a tour of Australia over 50 years ago.
At the time, Mr Sengstock was seven years old, and Frank Houston, then a New Zealand-based preacher, was a close friend of his parents.
The Crown prosecution alleged that from late 1999, when he learnt of his father’s paedophilia, until Frank Houston’s death in 2004, Brian Houston failed to disclose the information to authorities.
Mr Sengstock told the court during his evidence that he did not disclose the abuse until he was 16, when he told his mother.
In November 1998, Mr Sengstock’s mother, Rose Hardingham, told other members of the church including Barbara Taylor and Kevin ‘Mad Dog’ Mudford, the court heard.
It was from there that Brian Houston was told of his father’s offending.
Mr Houston’s barrister Phillip Boulten SC argued there was evidence that Mr Sengstock did not want to take part in a church or police investigation and that claims of a cover-up were ‘unfair’.
![Brett Sengstock (pictured with wife Lisa) was sexually assaulted by Frank Houston at his family's Coogee home while Frank Houston was on a tour of Australia over 50 years ago.](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/08/17/02/74408051-12415323-Brett_Sengstock_pictured_with_wife_Lisa_was_sexually_assaulted_b-m-25_1692236819680.jpg)
Brett Sengstock (pictured with wife Lisa) was sexually assaulted by Frank Houston at his family’s Coogee home while Frank Houston was on a tour of Australia over 50 years ago.
According to Mr Houston’s defence, he made numerous public statements, in interviews and in public sermons, about his father’s crimes prior to Frank Houston’s death in 2004.
His defence argued there were thousands of people – including police officers – who knew about Frank Houston’s offending because of Brian Houston’s disclosures.
The Crown prosecution argued those addresses used ‘watered down’ language such as ‘serious moral failure’.
In a video played during the trial, Mr Houston addressed the Hillsong Conference at Sydney’s SuperDome in 2002 and told the 18000-strong crowd: ‘One of my staff came into my office and began to tell me a story where my own father, who is my hero, was accused of sexual abuse over 30 years ago when he was a pastor in New Zealand still.
‘And I’ve got to tell you that what was being said left me so numb, so stunned, I could hardly believe what I was hearing … The best way I can describe it, it was like jets flying into the twin towers of my soul.’
Brian Houston learnt of his father’s offending via his business manager George Aghajanian before confronting his father inside his office at his church, the Hills Christian Life Centre, which would later become Hillsong.
Mr Houston during his evidence described it as a ‘tense’ and ‘awkward’ 45-minute meeting during which his father admitted to abusing Mr Sengstock.
‘He simply said ‘that did happen’,’ Mr Houston told the court.
‘He told me it only happened once, he told me it involved fondling his genitals. He was, I think, a mix of embarrassed, humiliated, shamed, remorseful.’
Mr Houston told the court that during the meeting, he told his father that his credentials as a minister would be removed and that he would never preach again.
![Frank Houston (pictured) then a New Zealand-based preacher, was a close friend of Brett Sengstock's parents](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/08/17/02/74408049-12415323-Frank_Houston_Picture_Supplied_-a-24_1692236189691.jpg)
Frank Houston (pictured) then a New Zealand-based preacher, was a close friend of Brett Sengstock’s parents
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 called to an urgent meeting at Sydney Airport to discuss revelations about Frank Houston.
According to minutes from that meeting, the AOG board had obtained legal advice indicating that it did not have to disclose the matter to police because by that time, Mr Sengstock was in his 30s and could make his own complaint.
The Crown prosecution argued that legal advice must have been relayed by Brian Houston as part of a cover-up.
However Mr Houston’s legal team argued another member of the AOG board, Wayne Alcorn, had knowledge of Frank Houston’s offending before the meeting and may have been the source of the advice.
More to come.
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