Global senior pastor Brian Houston speaks on stage during the Hillsong Atlanta grand opening at Hillsong Atlanta on 6 June 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo: Getty Images
By Jamie McKinnell and Heath Parkes-Hupton, ABC
Hillsong founder Brian Houston has been found not guilty of concealing his father's sexual abuse of a child.
The 69-year-old has previously told a Sydney court he was left "speechless" in 1999 when he first learned of Frank Houston's abuse of a seven-year-old boy decades earlier.
But Brian Houston insisted he did not go to the police because he was respecting the wishes of the victim, Brett Sengstock, who by that time was aged in his 30s.
He pleaded not guilty to concealing a serious indictable offence.
Magistrate Gareth Christofi on Thursday found Brian Houston not guilty, after concluding he had a "reasonable excuse" for not reporting the matter.
In his judgment, Magistrate Christofi found Houston knew or reasonably believed that Sengstock did not want the matter reported to police.
The court heard Sengstock gave evidence that his abuse at the hands of Frank Houston was a "hideous secret", and one he did not wish for others to know.
At a hearing last year, he gave evidence of feeling "betrayed" by his mother when she raised the allegations with a member of their local church in Sydney's west.
Magistrate Christofi found it would have been consistent with all the evidence that Sengstock would have expressed that sentiment to Brian Houston during a phone call about the abuse in 1999.
"There is little doubt in my view that the accused knew or believed on reasonable grounds that Brett Sengstock did not want the matter reported to police," the magistrate said.
He also found that a $10,000 payment arranged by Frank Houston to Sengstock could not be proven to be "hush money", or that Brian Houston had intended it to be so.
The court heard Sengstock, then in his 30s, met with Frank Houston and another member of the Hills Christian Life Centre - the precursor to Hillsong - at Thornleigh McDonalds in 1999.
He signed a napkin and told the court Frank Houston said: "You'll get your money we can keep this between ourselves."
Sengstock told the court he believed the money was to "buy his silence", and that he did not see the money until he chased up the deal with Brian Houston.
Magistrate Christofi found, however, that the terms of the agreement were "entirely unclear" and there was insufficient evidence that it was intended to stop Sengstock from going to the police.
The Crown's case was also contradicted by Sengstock's own evidence that he had not considered going to authorities, he found.
"[Mr Sengstock] did not need to be silenced."
'The very opposite of a cover-up'
Magistrate Christophi rejected the Crown's case that Brian Houston facilitated a "cover up" to protect the church's reputation, saying the Hillsong founder spoke openly about his father's crimes.
During the special fixture hearing last year, Brian Houston described his father as a "serial paedophile".
He said that in 1999 and 2000, more victims had come forward from his father's time in New Zealand and steps were taken to remove Frank Houston from the ministry.
The court heard Brian Houston told "many people at various levels" of the church about Frank Houston's predatory behaviour and referenced it in sermons delivered to churchgoers.
Brian Houston also discussed it during an interview with a reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald in 2002, Magistrate Christofi noted.
"That is the very opposite of a cover up," the magistrate found.
"He spoke widely and freely about the matter in public settings."
Speaking outside court, Mr Sengstock said regardless of today's outcome he had been handed a "life sentence" having endured a 45-year battle.
"Today I've received some recognition for a seven-year-old child who was brutally abused at the hands of a self-confessed child rapist and coward, Frank Houston," he said.
"Frank Houston was no pioneer for Christianity, his legacy remains a faded memory of a paedophile."
He thanked prosecutors, police and his family for their support, and all those who worked to give survivors of clergy child sexual abuse "a voice in this country".
"Blaming the victim is as repulsive as the assaults themselves," Mr Sengstock said.
"It should not be this hard."
During last year's hearing, he gave evidence that in one of their 1999 phone calls an "angry" Brian Houston claimed his father had been "tempted" by a young Mr Sengstock.
Mr Houston denied this while being cross-examined, saying it was "absurd" to suggest he would blame someone who was abused as a child.
"It's nonsense. I mean, who would say that about a seven-year-old boy, or a 10-year-old boy … it's just an absurd notion."
- This story was first published by the ABC
