Brian Houston now has ‘no doubt’ his father was a ‘serial paedophile’

Brian Houston has told a court he now has “no doubt” that his father Frank was a “serial paedophile” – and that it’s possible he even moved the family to Australia in the 1970s to get away from what he had done to young boys in New Zealand.

However,he maintained that there is “no evidence” his father continued to abuse minors after moving to Sydney and establishing his Christian Life Centre church – and by the time he learnt that his father had abused multiple children he believed he no longer posed a threat.

Houston,68,told the court he now believes “we’ll never know the extent” of his father’s paedophilia as he continued his evidence before Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Monday where he is fighting a charge that he concealed his knowledge of his father’s crimes between 1999 and 2004.

The charge relates to an incident in 1970 when Frank Houston molested seven-year-old Brett Sengstock while staying with his family in Coogee on a visit,which Brian Houston learned about in 1999. It wasn’t until the following year that Frank Houston’s historical abuse of children in New Zealand began to come out.

Brian Houston has pleaded not guilty,and defending the charge on the grounds he had a “reasonable excuse” not to report what he knew to police,primarily because he says Sengstock did not want police involved.

Houston’s barrister,Phillip Boulten SC,has also made the point that thousands of people would have become aware of the incident while his father was still alive,including senior police who attended the church.

Houston told the court on Monday that one prominent member of the church was former NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione,who was a Deputy Commissioner in 2002 when Houston was preaching about his father’s crimes at sermons.

The court was played a video of Houston preaching on Easter Sunday in 2002,telling the congregation his father had behaved in a “predatory manner” and it “involved victims”.

Houston said he was never approached by Scipione,who attended his father’s funeral in 2004,or any other member of NSW Police with any suggestion that he should have reported the crimes he had spoken about in sermons to thousands of worshippers.

He told magistrate Gareth Christofi that he “didn’t consider” that he could have reported the fact that his father had admitted to sexually abusing a child without naming Brett Sengstock as the victim.

Crown prosecutor Gareth Harrison put to Houston that part of his role within the church was protecting it from scandal. He replied:“no... not if it means hiding things”.

“When you look back at the timing of various things,does it appear to you now that your father left New Zealand because of the things he’d done to young boys there?”

“It’s a possibility,” Houston replied.

‘No cover up’ involved in $10,000 payment

Earlier in the day,Houston had told the court he met with a lawyer from top law firm Mallesons in November 2000 to ensure there was “no cover-up” involved with a payment his father was making to Sengstock.

Sengstock told the court earlier in the proceedings thathe had signed a “napkin” after meeting Frank Houston and another church elder at a McDonald’s restaurant in Thornleigh,and that he saw the payment as “buying my silence”.

But Brian Houston said that he met with the lawyers drafting the document to ensure “there was no request involved for silence,and there was nothing stopping Brett taking action” in the future.

“Bluntly,I was wanting to be careful that there was no cover-up here”,he said.

Houston told the court he did not pay Sengstock himself,nor did the money come from the church. “I was trying to stay arm’s length from[it],” he said.

“I thought it was very important it was well understood this wasn’t church money,wasn’t my money,it was between Frank and Brett,” he said.

The hearing continues.

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