Tag: frank houston

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Brian Houston’s Pedophile Father Given Generous Severance Package, According to Testimony

Despite admitting to being a pedophile who molested a young boy, Frank Houston, Brian Houston’s Father, was allowed to retire from the public eye without news of his molestations ever going public and was allowed to remain on the church’s payroll for almost a year afterward, collecting pay and benefits. 

Houston is on trial facing charges that he concealed his father’s sexual abuse by not reporting it when he learned about it, as required by law. Houston acknowledged his fault but claimed he kept silent at the request of the victim. If found guilty, he faces five years in prison. News AU reports:

Despite admitting to molesting a child, paedophile Frank Houston was still given a retirement package when he left the church, his son Brian Houston told the court.

Frank Houston was dismissed from the church and his credentials as a pastor removed in late 1999 after he made admissions about his rape of Mr. Sengstock.

However, the court was told Frank Houston remained on the church’s payroll until November 2000.

Brian Houston told the court his father was given the retirement package more than a year after he admitted to the offending.

The court heard the package was going to “financially look after” Frank and Hazel Houston.

“He had been fired from preaching, had his credentials taken, he’d been asked to leave Hillsong … this was an attempt to sign him off as an administrator,” Mr. Houston said.

Crown prosecutor Gareth Harrison suggested he was being allowed to “quietly retire” with no public announcement being made he was an “admitted paedophile”.

“What I’m suggesting to you is, what is clear from this meeting, Frank was being allowed to resign quietly,” Mr Harrison said.

and

Mr. Houston said his mother was “foremost in people’s thoughts” when it came to the financial package, as she had worked her whole life at the church and was not accused of any wrongdoing.

He said he couldn’t explain the motivation of the board, only that they wanted to look after his mother.

Mr. Harrison suggested it was an attempt to “conceal the true reason Frank was leaving”.

“I don’t believe there was any attempt to conceal Frank’s paedophilia,” Mr. Houston said.

“Frank had been gone from the church for almost 12 months.”

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Brian Houston Claims Sex-Abuse Victim Begged Him Not to Report Father’s Abuse+ New Revelations

Former Global Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church, Brian Houston, testified in court Friday that his father’s abuse victim, Brian Sengstock, begged him not to report it to police or authorities, a wish he says he honored and a claim the victim vehemently rejects, after Sengstock’s mother made the abuse known.

Houston is on trial responding to charges that he concealed sexual abuse by his deceased father more than 30 years ago. He was made aware of the allegations in 1999, five years before his father passed, but did not go to the police and turn his father in. He has pled ‘not guilty’ and, if convicted, faces five years in prison.

Houston described the meeting where he confronted his father, saying it was “tense” and “awkward” and lasted around 45 minutes.

“He simply said ‘that did happen’…He told me it only happened once, he told me it involved fondling his genitals. He was, I think, a mix of embarrassed, humiliated, shamed, remorseful.”

As a result of the confession, Houston told his father that he would not be able to attend church at Hillsong anymore, then known as Sydney Christian Life Centre.

He asked why, and I told him we have a ‘one strike and you’re out, no tolerance policy’ towards pedophiles, and it can’t be any different for you than it is for anyone else.”

He reiterated several times that Sengstock did not want any of this reported, describing him as “paranoid” that he might be identified.

(Mr Sengstock) was very dogmatic that he didn’t want the police involved… He said ‘you are not to go to the police’. He said ‘if anyone’s going to go to the police, it’ll be me and I don’t want to do that’.

I told him that I had no option but to disclose it to the national executive of the Assemblies of God and then his demeanor changed. He got angry, sort of panicky. And he said ‘I don’t want to be part of some big church investigation’.

He said ‘I don’t want my name splashed all over the church, you know how gossipy they all are’….He said ‘if strangers from the church try to contact me I won’t talk to them, I’ll deny it, I’ll hang up’. He was just very blunt and clear he didn’t want to be having any conversation with any people from the church. He was very concerned about his anonymity.”

The trial continues Monday.

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Frank Houston, Despite Being Defrocked, Kept Preaching Till He Died (Contradicting Son’s Testimony)

Brian Houston says his father never preached again after he took away his credentials. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)

Despite Hillsong’s Brian Houston stripping his father of his ministry credentials after discovering he molested at least one seven-year-old boy, the elder Frank Houston continued to preach and teach unabated, delivering sermons until his death, according to court testimony.

In 1999, Houston took away his dad’s preaching credentials. This was told to Assembly of God leaders, who met in secret and decided not to make the shocking confession public, providing in part that the pedophile pastor never preached again. In multiple interviews, Brian Houston testified to this fact that his father never preached again until he died in 2004.

This morning, the court heard that Frank Houston was still preaching at the Hunter Valley Christian Life Centre eight weeks before his death and would occasionally lead prayer over those attending the services. The church’s pastor Robert Cotton said he was unaware of the child sex abuse and that if he had known, he would have never let him preach in 2004, saying:

“There’s no way in the world I would have had him back in the church. I wouldn’t have had him near any of the kids in the church. I wouldn’t have had him around my son who was in the church.”

In audio from the 2004 sermon, Frank can be observed commenting on a child’s looks:

“This curly haired little man here … But what a fantastic young fellow he is, curly hair, sort of. Good looking. It’s not your fault you’re good looking. So thank God you are. Who wants to be ugly when you can be good looking.”

The trial continues.

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Multinational Megachurch ‘Hillsong’ Threatens to Sue Critics that are ‘Defaming’ Them

With the news breaking that Hillsong head honcho Brian Houston has been charged with failing to report the sexual abuse of a 7-year-old boy by his deceased father more than 30 years ago, Houston in turn has come out swinging against his critics, threatening to sue anyone defaming the church by spreading what they describe as “spurious” and “untrue claims” about them.

In 2014, a Royal Commission confirmed that Pastor Frank Houston, who had a sexual interest in the Lord’s little ones, confessed to abusing the young boy in 1969 and 1970. Brian Houston was made aware of the allegations in 1999, five years before his father passed, but did not go to the police and turn his father in. About his father’s sexual proclivities, he would later lament:

“At that time I thought there was one (victim) and then 12 months later it became clear there were many more, mostly in New Zealand,…’It’s obvious he was a pedophile and that his behavior was repetitive and it seems like it was over a period of a decade in the late sixties and seventies.’

In the defense of his actions not to go to the police, Houston argues in his statement that “The victim was a 36-year-old adult when this abuse became known and could have taken the matter to police himself at any time” and “the victim did not want Pastor Brian or others to go to the police“-a charge the victim vehemently denies.

The victim, known as ‘AHA’ told the Guardian back in 2014 that Frank Houston met with him before he died and offered him $10,000 in compensation. When no money came after months of waiting, AHA contacted Brian Houston who allegedly told him “You know it’s your fault all of this happened – you tempted my father.” AHA stresses:

“The church community made me feel like it was my problem…I have received absolutely no support, no counseling, apology or acknowledgment of the abuse…I believe that Brian Houston and other elders of the Hillsong Church kept the abuse as quiet as they could, and have not been held accountable.”

As for the threats of litigation, possibly for sharing what we just shared, Hillsong released a statement on their website promising recompense for anyone suggesting anything other than perfect compliance and virtuous actions.

Over the past few days there has been numerous media reports and comments on social media about our senior pastor Brian Houston and references to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, at which Pastor Brian gave evidence in 2014.

Much of this commentary is factually incorrect and highly defamatory, and we call on the media and others to immediately stop making these spurious claims. We have directed our lawyers to review several articles that have published untrue and defamatory claims that smear Pastor Brian’s reputation as a Christian leader. Furthermore, we remind those who seek to spread rumours and baseless information via social media that these comments may also be subject to a defamation action.

Houston is going to court in October. If found guilty, he faces up to 5 years behind bars.