Key points
- Brian Houston has been cleared of concealing alleged child sex offences by his father Frank Houston in the 1970s.
- He pleaded not guilty to concealing a serious indictable offence.
- Magistrate Gareth Christofi concluded Brian Houston had a "reasonable excuse" for not reporting the matter.
Hillsong founder Brian Houston had a reasonable excuse not to report his father's abuse of a boy to the police more than two decades ago, a court has ruled.
He has been cleared of concealing his father's child abuse in a case the Hillsong founder says would not have been brought against someone else and the extent of his serial pedophile father's offending will probably never be known, but he did not cover up his father's crimes.
The former leader of the international Pentecostal mega-church dismissed allegations against him as a "targeted attack" as he was acquitted in court of concealing his father Frank's abuse.
"If I wasn't Brian Houston from Hillsong, this charge would never have happened," he said on Thursday.
The 69-year-old was cleared of concealing a serious indictable offence in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court which stemmed from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Brian Houston was a child when his father Frank Houston began abusing Brett Sengstock, who has chosen to waive his right to anonymity.
Sengstock, said outside court he had received a life sentence of trauma for the abuse he experienced as a boy.
"Today I have 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.
"His legacy remains a faded memory of a pedophile."
Houston later learned of his father's abuse and confronted him about it.
Frank Houston confessed and was stood down in late 1999.
Brian Houston shared the news with other members of the national executive within the Assemblies of God churches during an urgent meeting at Sydney airport.
Word of the elder Houston's confession eventually reached Sengstock, but he could not remember who told him, telling the court "it was gossip everywhere."
However, Brian Houston did not report his father to the police and described his prosecution as a "targeted attack" after being found not guilty.
"In fact I have always been not guilty," Houston said.
He added he felt genuine sadness about what his father did to Mr Sengstock and others he abused, branding him a serial pedophile.
"We probably will never know the extent of his pedophilia," Houston said.
"But I am not my father, I did not commit this offence." However, Mr Houston described his prosecution as a "targeted attack" after being found not guilty.
Houston argued he did not report his father's abuse to the police because he did not believe Sengstock wanted that to happen.
He also suggested Sengstock was by then an adult who could have reported the abuse himself.
Magistrate Gareth Christofi found Houston not guilty on Thursday in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court.
His excuse for not reporting the abuse was a reasonable one, the magistrate said.
"Victims of sexual abuse ought to feel safe to confide in others without being concerned they are exposing those others to a criminal offence," Christofi said.
Sengstock said he never told Houston he did not want the abuse reported, a point of dispute at the hearing.
But Christofi said regardless of what Sengstock told Houston, the Hillsong leader had been told of the abuse survivor's attitude by others.
The prosecution said Houston had adopted a convenient excuse to avoid reporting the matter to authorities in order to protect both the church and his father.
Christofi said proving that claim beyond reasonable doubt was "a tall order indeed".
It was also submitted Houston had used vague language when he spoke publicly about his father's abuse and removal as a minister.
Houston might have been "euphemistic" when talking to thousands of people, but it was obvious what he was talking about and anyone left wondering needed only to ask around, Christofi said.
The fact he was speaking "widely and freely" about his father's abuse publicly at all indicated he wanted people to know.
"That is the very opposite of a cover-up," Christofi said.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit . In an emergency, call 000.
