Houston,68,was charged last year with concealing a serious indictable offence over his failure to tell police his father,high-profile Pentecostal pastor Frank Houston,had sexually abused a child in 1970.
Hillsong founder Brian Houston arrives at Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday with his wife Bobbi.Kate Geraghty
The younger Houston,who became aware of the allegation in 1999 when he was the president of the national executive of the Assemblies of God network of Pentecostal churches,has pleaded not guilty and is defending the charge on grounds that his belief the victim did not want it reported to police was a “reasonable excuse” for him not to.
Houston’s barrister,Phillip Boulten,SC,told a hearing at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court earlier this week that “there were many,many,many people who knew about the victim’s abuse” between 1999 and Frank Houston’s death in 2004,“none of whom reported it to police”.
Boulten said that there would have been police officers among the “tens of thousands” who knew about the crime,of which Frank Houston had told his son he was guilty.
On Thursday,the court was shown footage from a Hillsong convention at the SuperDome in Sydney Olympic Park in 2002,in which Brian Houston alluded to his father’s crime in a sermon praising his 19-year-old son’s response to the news as “awesome medicine”.
He revealed to the crowd that he had discussed the crime with his son,and told him that he didn’t want the news to affect his faith.
“He said,‘That won’t happen,Dad … I’ve had my own revelation of Jesus,’ ” Houston said in the video.
“I could never even begin to tell you what awesome medicine that was to my soul,” he said.
“I’m up here on a public platform being able to tell you something of my story and my pain,” he went on. “The awesome thing about the supernatural is that it has an answer to anguish.”
Hillsong Australia general manager George Aghajanian told the court there would have been at least 18,000 people at the event,but couldn’t say whether there would have been police officers among them.
Aghajanian told the hearing that the response of church leaders to the child sex abuse,including the decision not to report the matter to police or other state authorities,was predicated on the view that as a “historical” matter there was no requirement to report it.
Hillsong Australia general manager George Aghajanian at the court on Thursday.Kate Geraghty
Aghajanian could not recall whether he was aware of the victim’s wishes at the time,but said they did not factor into the decision of church leaders not to report it.
After initially repeatedly stating that he couldn’t recall having heard “anything about the victim’s attitude” to reporting to police,he later told the court that he did have that conversation with Brian Houston at some point – but couldn’t remember when.
He said the organisation had a policy to report current allegations involving children to what was then the NSW Department of Community Services,but didn’t think that was relevant to a case involving a crime that occurred 30 years earlier,whose victim was now an adult.
He said he thought it was “very appropriate” that the matter was dealt with by the national executive of the Assemblies of God,and denied that there was a cover-up.
The hearing continues.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories,analysis and insights..