Trial Watch: Meeting Where Brian Hillsong Revealed Dad’s Pedophilia Kept Secret, Minutes Kept Hidden
After Brian Houston’s dad, Frank, admitted to molesting a 7-year-old boy, Houston called a meeting between Assemblies of God leaders, who all agreed to keep the details a secret, the court was told.
Brian Houston is currently facing five years in prison for “concealing a serious indictable offense of another person” for not turning in his father to the police after the confession, instead keeping quiet about the matter until his father’s death five years later.
According to Keith Ainge, then the Assemblies of God secretary in 1999, denominational leaders met at Sydney Qantas Club in 199 after a frantic request from Houston, who was then the denomination’s National President. Ainge explained that after making the announcement, Houston recused himself but not before explaining that the victim, Brett Sengstock, did not want anyone to know what happened, and the matter kept quiet, a charge Sengstock has vehemently denied in court.
“(Brian’s) father had admitted that he had behaved inappropriately, and so he immediately suspended his credential, which was his prerogative as the national president.”
There was some talk about consulting a lawyer and telling the police, but ultimately the ydecided against it, believing that Houston had already spoken to a lawyer and believing Houston’s claim about Senstock’s request for silence.
AOG VP John Lewis requested that the meeting’s minutes be kept hidden, on account of the sensitive nature of the situation, and that they be kept in a secret file so that parishioners couldn’t just discover and read them. The rest of the participants agreed.
A day prior, Sengstock aunt, Barbar Taylor, told the court that after she confronted Brian Houston about what his dad had done, Houston told her not to put anything in writing and that if she wanted to discuss it, to only talk to him about it and only on the phone.
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“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit”.
Jesus. Matthew 7:18 [NASB]
True, but a good tree can become diseased and good people can be corrupted. Let’s pray all can persevere to the end, as our Lord bids us.