Houston,69,was charged in 2021 with concealing a serious indictable offence after he failed to report his father Frank’s crime to police between learning of it in 1999 and his death in 2004.
Brian Houston and his wife Bobbie leave court after he was acquitted of covering up his father’s child sexual abuse.Kate Geraghty
Houston pleaded not guilty,telling Downing Centre Local Court he did not tell police about the abuse – which happened when the victim,Brett Sengstock,was aged seven or eight – because Sengstock had urged him not to.
On Thursday,Magistrate Gareth Christofi found Houston genuinely believed that Sengstock did not want the matter reported to police,finding him not guilty. Houston hugged and kissed supporters in the court’s public gallery when the verdict was handed down.
Speaking as he left court,Houston said he wanted to express genuine sadness for Sengstock and his father’s other victims.
The court heard Frank Houston was accused of abusing other children in New Zealand,with six specific allegations made against him that were deemed credible by church authorities.
Brett Sengstock said he had been given a life sentence.Kate Geraghty
“He was obviously a serial paedophile,” Brian Houston said. “We probably will never know the extent of his paedophilia.
“A lot of people’s lives have been tragically hurt,and for that I’ll always be very sad. But I am not my father. I did not commit this offence,and I feel a sense of relief that at least the truth has come out.”
Houston said he believed the charge against him was “a targeted attack” and “if I wasn’t Brian Houston from Hillsong,this charge would never have happened”.
“I know a lot of people agree with me on that,” he said.
As he left court,Sengstock said he had received some recognition for the brutal abuse he received as a seven-year-old child “at the hands of a self-confessed child rapist and coward”.
“Frank Houston was no pioneer for Christianity;his legacy remains a faded memory of a paedophile,” Sengstock said. “Regardless of today’s outcome,I have received a life sentence.”
Christofi said Sengstock was paid $10,000 after meeting with Frank Houston in late 1999 or early 2000,during which he signed a napkin and was told to contact Brian Houston if the money didn’t come through.
The magistrate said it was “quite clearly” wrong for Brian Houston to be involving himself “at any level” with an extracurial payment to a victim of child sexual abuse where the perpetrator was a member of his church,let alone his father.
The Crown suggested the amount was “hush money”,but Christofi said he could not be satisfied the money was an attempt to silence Sengstock as opposed to some kind of informal financial compensation.
The magistrate said Brian Houston participated,during which he said his father confessed to being a paedophile,and he reported the matter to church elders and the wider congregation.
Houston also spoke about his father’s predatory behaviour in large sermons,including one which was later broadcast on Channel Ten.
“The obvious conclusion to draw ... is that he wanted people to know about it,” Christofi said. “That is the very opposite of a cover-up.”
Christofi said he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Houston did not have a reasonable excuse for failing to report the information he had to the police.
“The verdict,therefore,must be not guilty,” he said.
The case will return to court in September to decide if an application will be made for costs.
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