AUSTRALIA
The Australian
Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney
A FOUNDER of the Hillsong Church told a victim of child sexual abuse: “It’s your fault all this happened, you tempted my father,” a royal commission has heard.
Brian Houston, whose family “were considered to be almost like royalty” in the Pentecostal Christian movement was speaking to the victim after his father agreed to pay him $10,000 over his abuse, the commission heard.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard evidence that Brian Houston’s father, William Francis ‘Frank’ Houston abused several children in Australia and New Zealand.
One victim, who was abused by the late Frank Houston for several years during the 1960s and 1970s, said the pastor “would be touching me inappropriately, I would be petrified and would just lay very still”.
The abuse took place in his family home, the victim said, and when he finally told his mother, he said: “It was difficult for her to accept … all of her friends were involved in the church and the Houstons were considered to be almost like royalty in those circles.”
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