Brian Houston did not report his paedophile father to police in order to protect the church, and bought his father’s victim’s silence to stop him going to the “secular authorities”, a Sydney court has heard.
Houston, the founding pastor of the Hillsong megachurch, is on trial for one count of concealing a serious indictable offence of another person, for not reporting to police his father’s confession to repeatedly sexually assaulting and raping a young boy who was a member of his church.
