Hillsong founder not guilty of concealing father's child abuse

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Hillsong church founder Brian Houston has been found not guilty of concealing his father's sexual abuse of a child. The case hinged on whether he had a reasonable excuse for not going to police after Frank Houston made admissions in 1999.

Transcript

00:00 Well, Mr. Houston's reaction was mostly one of relief today.

00:05 He maintained throughout this case that he didn't go to police when he learned of these

00:08 claims against his father in 1999 because he was respecting the wishes of the victim,

00:14 Brett Sengstock, who by that time was aged in his 30s.

00:18 Now the onus in this case was on the Crown to prove that Brian Houston did not have a

00:22 reasonable excuse for going to outside authorities.

00:27 The magistrate in the local court, Gareth Christoffi, has found that Mr. Houston knew

00:32 or reasonably believed that Brett Sengstock didn't want this matter reported.

00:36 The magistrate has also rejected suggestions from the Crown that there was some kind of

00:40 cover-up, he said, because Brian Houston was talking to many different people about these

00:46 allegations after learning of them.

00:48 The court heard that after learning of the claims, Brian Houston confronted his father,

00:53 Frank Houston, and Frank Houston made confessions that this did happen decades earlier when

00:58 Brett Sengstock was a child of the age of about six or seven.

01:02 Brett Sengstock himself gave evidence during this hearing last year and he said the abuse

01:07 was, in his words, a hideous secret and that he was also, the court heard, quite betrayed.

01:13 He felt betrayed by his mother, who was the one who first started raising the allegations

01:17 with people from their church.

01:20 The magistrate considered a phone call between Brian Houston and Mr. Sengstock, which happened

01:25 about 1999, and the magistrate said it would be consistent with the evidence that Brett

01:30 Sengstock would have expressed similar sentiments to what he said in court to Brian Houston

01:36 at that time.

01:37 For that reason, the element of this offence that there was no reasonable excuse had failed

01:42 and Brian Houston has been found not guilty.

01:45 Outside court, Brian Houston spoke to the media and he said he acknowledges that his

01:49 father was a serial pedophile.

01:51 I've been found not guilty today, but in fact, I've always been not guilty.

01:56 I'm going to express my sadness to Brett Sengstock, genuine sadness about what my father did to

02:03 him and all his victims.

02:06 He was obviously a serial pedophile.

02:08 We probably will never know the extent of his pedophilia.

02:12 And a lot of people's lives have been tragically hurt.

02:17 And for that, I'll always be very sad.

02:20 But I'm not my father.

02:21 Jamie, what's Brett Sengstock had to say about the verdict?

02:27 Well Brett Sengstock is clearly quite disappointed by this outcome.

02:31 He told us outside court that this case and the hearings that we had last year have really

02:35 exposed the narrative that other people were trying to speak on his behalf.

02:39 And he spoke about this being a 45 year battle.

02:42 Here is Mr. Sengstock.

02:44 Frank Houston was no pioneer for Christianity.

02:48 His legacy remains a faded memory of a pedophile.

02:51 Regardless of today's outcome, I have received a life sentence.

02:56 Blaming the victim is as repulsive as the assaults themselves.

03:00 This battle has gone on for 45 years.

03:03 45 years have added trauma from this institution and their supporters.

03:09 The narrative that had been said by others who took it upon themselves to speak for me

03:14 has been exposed.

03:17 Now Mr. Sengstock has also thanked the prosecutors and his legal team.

03:22 And he, as we heard in that grab, spoke of this nevertheless being for him a life sentence.

03:26 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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