AUSTRALIA
7 News
ABC
BY NONEE WALSH
October 9, 2014
Hillsong Church leader Brian Houston has told an inquiry he did not report child sexual abuse claims against his father to police because the victim was over 18 when he came forward.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is examining the handling of allegations against William Francis Houston, better known as Frank.
Brian Houston said he was told in October 1999 that a man in his mid 30s, known as AHA, had come forward to reveal that Frank Houston had abused him about 30 years earlier.
He told the inquiry he was in no doubt that a criminal offence had been committed.
“Rightly or wrongly I genuinely believed that I would be pre-empting the victim if I were just to call the police,” he said.
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