Hillsong Church leader Brian Houston ignored conflict of interest when dealing with sex abuse claims against father: royal commission

By Ben Worsley
ABC News
November 23, 2015

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Hillsong church leader Brian Houston did not report sex abuse allegations about his father to police.

The royal commission into child abuse has found the head of the Hillsong Church Brian Houston ignored a conflict of interest in dealing with allegations of sexual abuse against his father.

Brian Houston was president of the Assemblies of God Pentecostal movement in 1999, when his father Frank Houston, a senior pastor at the Sydney Christian Life Centre, confessed to abusing a boy in New Zealand 30 years earlier.

Last year, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told Brian Houston ran the church's investigation into the matter.

Frank Houston was eventually suspended from preaching but Brian Houston never called police.

Despite Brian Houston's claim to the contrary, the commission has found there was a conflict of interest between his personal and professional roles and that the church ignored its own policies during the investigation.

"Pastor Brian Houston told the Royal Commission that he did not think he had a conflict of interest because he never attempted to defend his father from the allegations and he acted swiftly to suspend his credential," the commission found.

"We do not accept the views expressed by pastor Brian Houston."

The Commission found the conflict first arose when Brian Houston decided to confront his father about the allegations while holding the position of president and senior pastor.

It found it was also apparent when he acted as a go-between, when his father organised a $10,000 payment to the victim.

In his evidence at the Commission, Brian Houston said "the payment of money to [the victim] had nothing to do with the National Executive [of the Assemblies of God] because I was adamant that this was not about Hillsong; this was not about the Australian Assemblies of God in Australia. This payment was between Frank and [the victim]."

Mr Houston also told the Commission he did not report his father's abuse to the police, despite acknowledging he had committed a criminal offence.

He said he did not tell police because the victim was, by then, in his thirties and did not want the authorities involved.

In a statement, Hillsong Church said the abuse committed by Frank Houston occurred years before its church was formed.

"It is easy to look back many years in hindsight, however Pastor Brian acted in the best way he felt at the time and took decisive and immediate action against his own father," the church said.

Frank Houston was allowed to retire from the church before the abuse became public.

He died in 2004.