Warning, this article contains mention of child sexual abuse.
The founder and one-time global pastor of Hillsong Church, Brian Houston, has been acquitted of charges that he concealed knowledge of his father’s child sex abuse crimes.
The decision was handed down by Sydney magistrate Gareth Christofi on Thursday morning.
Brian Houston, the 69-year-old former pastor, faced a possible five years in jail had he been found guilty. His legal team had argued that he had a reasonable excuse not to inform authorities back in 1999 that his father, Frank, had sexually abused a seven-year-old boy in Sydney.
Brian Houston came to know of the crimes decades later through other Assemblies of God figures. He maintained that the victim of Frank Houston’s crime — by then in his late 30s — had not wanted to go to secular authorities and that, as an adult, it was the victim’s choice to make.
Christofi upheld the defence argument, finding there was little doubt that the victim, as an adult, did not want the matter referred to the police.
The victim later identified himself as Newcastle man Brett Sengstock. He later recounted the horrific impact of being abused by Frank Houston, who at the time was a highly revered figure in the Pentecostal church.
The question of exactly what Brian Houston knew about his father’s crimes and what he should have done with that knowledge followed the pastor for more than 20 years as his power and influence spread. At the same time, Houston’s razzamatazz style of Pentecostal Christianity grew in popularity as the traditional religions struggled to attract attendees.
For much of the time, the detail and extent of the scandal surrounding Frank Houston was known to only a select group of senior Pentecostal figures. When Frank Houston died in 2004, his funeral was attended by up to a thousand mourners, including politicians and a future NSW police commissioner. He was farewelled as a great man of religion.
The secular world only caught on to Hillsong’s darkest secret in 2014, when the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse heard first-hand from Frank Houston’s victim, Brett Sengstock, who gave evidence under a code name. By then in his early 50s, Sengstock related the shocking details of what Frank Houston had done to him as a seven-year-old in the dead of night as he lay in his bed.
Sengstock also related the sordid details of how Frank Houston, accompanied by another Hillsong stalwart, offered to pay Sengstock $10,000 in a deal concocted at a meeting held in a suburban McDonald’s in Sydney. The deal was recorded on the back of a soiled serviette. Sengstock says that for his part he was required to forgive Frank Houston for his sins. Critically, though, the magistrate today ruled this was not evidence of hush money.
The royal commission was also the first time that Brian Houston had spoken publicly about his reaction to learning of the sex abuse allegation involving the young Sengstock.
“It hit me, you know, in a 10-second period, in a wave, because I was like, ‘homosexual’, you know, get my head around that, before my consciousness went to, ‘Hold on a minute, we’re not just talking about, you know, homosexual; we’re talking about paedophilia’,” he told the commission.
“[After that I] cried. Went home and I was devastated, to be honest with you. I was totally devastated.”
In 2015 the royal commission recommended that NSW Police investigate Brian Houston’s failure to tell the authorities about his father’s crime when he found out about it in 1999. By that time, Brian Houston was at the apex of power in Australian Pentecostalism. The NSW Police investigation appeared to stall but moved up several gears in 2019. The scandal returned to public consciousness when Brian Houston was charged in 2021 with concealing the crimes of his father.
Brian Houston has always contested the legal case against him. But deeper questions persisted about the morality of Brian Houston’s and Hillsong’s position with respect to other victims as they came forward.
In the early 2000s, the Australian Assemblies of God learnt from their New Zealand counterparts that Frank Houston had abused other young boys as he made his way up to the top of the New Zealand Pentecostal movement. He was in fact a prolific abuser of children.
A familiar pattern emerged. The great Frank Houston — a man whom God had commanded to spread the word — would be welcomed into the homes of parishioners. At an opportune moment, he would slip away from the adults and move silently, like a shadow, into their child’s bedroom.
Years later, some of those boys — now adults — sought out the Houstons for some form of acknowledgement of what had occurred. Usually it got them nowhere. Neither Frank nor Brian Houston showed any inclination to make a public apology or pay compensation, even as millions upon millions of dollars flowed into Hillsong, in tax-free tithes and donations from its ever-expanding band of followers.
Hillsong grew exponentially in Australia and overseas between 2000 and 2014 — the very period in which the church kept the details of Frank Houston’s crimes under wraps.
Brian Houston had prospered through the 20 years from 1999 to 2019. He made Hillsong a destination for Australia’s political leaders — most notably Scott Morrison — who were keen to tap into Hillsong’s aspirational middle-class followers.
In the eyes of his followers, though, Brian Houston came undone over his apparent moral failings with two women. In March last year, it was revealed that a drunk Brian Houston had spent 40 minutes in a woman’s hotel room during Hillsong’s 2019 annual conference. It emerged, too, that in 2013, the pastor had engaged in a flirty text exchange with a young female employee who subsequently left Hillsong.
Both instances had been covered up for years. Houston’s end followed soon after his extramarital transgressions became public.
Today’s acquittal comes as Hillsong marks 40 years since the church was established in Sydney’s Hills district by Brian Houston and his wife, Bobbie.
Last Sunday, Houston’s replacement as global pastor related a biblical tale that appeared to apply directly to the fallen founder.
“It’s one thing to be a leader,” Pastor Phil Dooley told the church, “it’s another thing to continue to be a follower … and to submit to the Good Shepherd.”
Dooley said that by failing to follow the Good Shepherd, “I end up in all sorts of problems”.
Thus ends the tale of Pastor Brian Houston, the shepherd who lost his way — as well as his flock.
Survivors of abuse can find support by calling Bravehearts at 1800 272 831 or the Blue Knot Foundation at 1300 657 380. The Kids Helpline is 1800 55 1800. In an emergency, call 000. If you or someone you know is affected by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.
