Hillsong founder Brian Houston has been found not guilty of covering up his father’s child sex abuse of a boy more than two decades ago.

A magistrate found the 69-year-old followed the wishes of his father’s victim Brett Sengstock by not reporting the crime to police.

Houston’s father Frank Houston began abusing Sengstock in the 1970s.

Brian Houston enters Downing Centre courts Photo Nick Moir 15 June 2023
Hillsong founder Brian Houston has been cleared of covering up his father’s abuse of a boy. (Nick Moir)

Houston later learned of his father’s abuse and confronted him about it.

Frank Houston confessed and was defrocked in late 1999.

Brian Houston shared the confession news with other members of the national executive within the Assemblies of God churches during an urgent meeting at Sydney Airport.

Word of the elder Houston’s confession eventually reached Sengstock, but he could not remember who told him, telling the court “it was gossip everywhere”.

However, Houston did not report his father to police.

He faced a local court hearing beginning in December, pleading not guilty to a charge of concealing a serious indictable offence, which stemmed from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Frank Houston, pictured preaching during his career as a pentecostal pastor, is subject to sex abuse claims. (9NEWS)
Frank Houston was defrocked in 2004. (9NEWS)

Houston argued he did not report his father’s abuse to police because he did not believe Sengstock wanted that to happen.

He also suggested Sengstock was by then an adult who could have reported the abuse himself.

Magistrate Gareth Christofi found Houston not guilty on Thursday.

His excuse for not reporting the abuse was a reasonable one, the magistrate said.

“Victims of sexual abuse ought to feel safe to confide in others without being concerned they are exposing those others to a criminal offence,” Christofi said.

Sengstock said he never told Houston he did not want the abuse reported, a point of dispute at the hearing.

But Christofi said regardless of what Sengstock told Houston, the Hillsong leader had been told of the abuse survivor’s attitude by others.

Brett Sengstock
Brett Sengstock (left) was abused as a boy by Frank Houston. (Kate Geraghty)

The prosecution said Houston had adopted a convenient excuse to avoid reporting the matter to authorities in order to protect both the church and his father.

Christofi said proving that claim beyond reasonable doubt was “a tall order indeed”.

It was also submitted Houston had used vague language when he spoke publicly about his father’s abuse and removal as a minister.

Houston might have been “euphemistic” when talking to thousands of people, but it was obvious what he was talking about and anyone left wondering needed only to ask around, Christofi said.

The fact he was speaking “widely and freely” about his father’s abuse publicly at all indicated he wanted people to know.

“That is the very opposite of a cover-up,” Christofi said.

You May Also Like

New Evidence Against Kilmar Abrego Garcia Drops… And It’s Bad

Well, the evidence against  Kilmar Abrego Garcia just keeps piling up.…

Jasmine Crockett Says Musk Is an 'Idiot', Challenges Trump to an IQ Test

Everyone’s favorite Democratic congresswoman’s 15 minutes of fame aren’t up just…

Confronting photos show Ford Falcon completely ripped apart after slamming into a telegraph pole during an alleged police pursuit that has left a man and a woman fighting for life

By NICK WILSON FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA Published: 11:45 EDT, 24 April…

Aged care worker charged with sexually assaulting elderly residents

An aged care worker has been charged with sexually assaulting residents in…