Houston,69,is accused of concealing a serious indictable offence over failing to report the crime to police between learning of it in 1999 and his father’s death in 2004. He has pleaded not guilty.
Brian Houston leaves Downing Centre Local Court on Friday.Rhett Wyman
In closing submissions on Friday,defence barrister Phillip Boulten,SC,told Downing Centre Local Court his client had a reasonable excuse for not making a police report – that the victim,Brett Sengstock,did not want police involved.
The court heard Houston confronted his father in November 1999 and the older man confessed to molesting Sengstock in the 1970s. Houston then informed his father he was no longer welcome to attend Hillsong.
Boulten said Houston subsequently told the church’s national executive about his father’s confession.
“Brian Houston did what no one else was prepared to do:to confront the issue,and he confronted it head-on with his dad,” Boulten said.
“He told his father,‘I’m going to stand you down now,you’ll never go back to Hillsong,you are going to be decredentialled’. And that’s what upset Frank the most. It was devastating to Frank that he would no longer be a credentialled preacher.”
Boulten said Sengstock was informed that Frank Houston’s preaching credentials had been revoked and was offered counselling,which he rejected. The barrister said it would be “very unfair” to describe this as some kind of cover-up.
“If it is the case that the accused spoke to him,or could be the case that he spoke to him,then that gives a fatal blow to the suggestion that my client was covering up,” Boulten said.
He said his client “foolishly” didn’t announce to “the whole world” what his father had done,but he did tell many thousands of people – starting with all pastors and volunteers at Hillsong and Sydney Christian Life Centre.
Boulten said about 2000 attendees at a leadership vision night in February 2002 were told Frank Houston’s credentials had been removed “because of child molestation”,and tapes of two church events in March 2002 showed Brian Houston also told those crowds what his father did.
On Easter Sunday in 2002,Houston told “thousands of people in the audience”,plus some watching on television,“that Frank had conducted himself in a manner that was predatory and involved victims”.
Boulten said Houston also told the annual Hillsong conference in 2002,which had more than 18,000 attendees,that “Frank had been accused of sexual abuse over 30 years ago” but “we have not been led by an active paedophile”.
“Someone who used to go to that conference every year was the commissioner of police,” Boulten said. “Your honour should reject completely the assertion that Brian Houston was involved in a cover-up.”
Pastor quits after internal inquiry found he behaved inappropriately towards two women.
The barrister said even if his client had other motivations to avoid telling police,if Sengstock’s wishes “played a significant or determinative role in the overall conduct of the accused in the charge period,then that should lead to an acquittal”.
“This is not judgment about Hillsong ... this is a criminal trial with a particular charge against a particular person,and it is not enough for the prosecution to say ‘he’s responsible for everything that happened’,” Boulten said.
Magistrate Gareth Christofi will deliver his judgment on August 17.
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