The head of Hillsong Church, Brian Houston, told a man who was abused by Houston’s father that it was his fault for tempting the preacher, the victim has told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

It was also alleged that Frank Houston, a preacher who helped build Australia’s Pentecostal movement, which led to the establishment of Hillsong, met the victim in a McDonald’s and offered him $10,000, saying he did not want his actions hanging over his head when he stood before God.

The royal commission is examining the responses by the Sydney Christian Life Centre and Hills Christian Life Centre (now Hillsong Church) and Assemblies of God in Australia (now Australian Christian Churches) to allegations against the Pentecostal Christian pastor, and began by hearing from a victim of abuse.

Frank Houston, who died in 2004, confessed in 2000 to sexually abusing a boy in New Zealand more than 30 years earlier. He was immediately sacked by his son, Brian Houston, the high-profile founder of the Hillsong Church, who was then national president of the Assemblies of God.

It was also revealed on Tuesday that Frank Houston had allegedly abused up to nine boys in Australia and New Zealand and that no allegations were referred to police nor civil proceedings commenced in Australia.

The victim, referred to as AHA, told the commission on Tuesday that Frank Houston had been a close friend of his family and he would stay with them on his visits to Sydney in 1969 and 1970. Frank Houston would sometimes bring his family, including his son Brian. AHA said that he remembered Frank Houston coming into his room at night and sexually assaulting him.

“I would be petrified and lay very still,” he told the commission. “I could not speak while this was happening and felt like I couldn’t breathe. It felt like forever.”

He said Frank Houston had “lost interest” when he reached puberty.

AHA said he had told his mother of the abuse in 1978 but she expressed concern about the potential effect on the church and so AHA did not pursue the allegations.

“The Houstons were considered to be almost like royalty in [church] circles,” he said, adding that his mother had told him words to the effect of “you don’t want to be responsible for turning people from the church and sending them to hell”.

“I therefore did not pursue the matter any further,” he said.

Two decades later his mother told an Assemblies of God church about her son’s allegations, and a number of executive and senior members of the Assemblies of Good – including Brian Houston – were informed, counsel assisting the commission Simeon Beckett had said earlier.

AHA said Frank Houston had called him and his mother a number of times and said words to the effect of, “I want to get together some sort of money as a sort of compensation to you. I don’t want this on my head when I stand in front of God.”

In 2000 AHA met Frank Houston and a third, unknown man at Thornleigh McDonald’s, he said.

Frank Houston allegedly told him, “I want your forgiveness for this,” and offered him $10,000. The unnamed man then placed a put a food-stained napkin in front of him and told him to sign it for the money, AHA told the commission. AHA signed the napkin and the unnamed man said he would send AHA a cheque.

Frank Houston said if there were any problems to call Brian Houston, which AHA did two months later when nothing had arrived, the commission heard.

AHA alleged that Brian Houston became angry and said: “You know it’s your fault all of this happened – you tempted my father.”

He said he had replied by asking Brian Houston if he was also molested by his father. Brian Houston allegedly slammed the phone down.

Two weeks later a cheque with no covering note arrived in the mail, he said.

AHA told the commission he still had flashbacks of his abuse and had difficulty being in presence of elderly men, being intimate with his wife and felt awkward with his own sons because he did not want them to get used to hugging men.

“The church community made me feel like it was my problem,” AHA told the commission. “I have received absolutely no support, no counselling, apology or acknowledgement 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.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Simeon Beckett delivered his opening statement and prefaced the evidence to come.

He told the commission that investigations by executive members of the Assemblies of God had uncovered “substantial” allegations that Frank Houston had sexually abused six boys 30 years previously and that at least 50 New Zealand pastors had been aware of the allegations.

The Assemblies of God investigation was sparked by allegations from AHA. Further allegations surfaced in 2002 and 2009.

Frank Houston was an ordained Salvation Army officer who established the first Assemblies of God church in Lower Hutt, New Zealand in 1960.

In 1977 he established the Sydney Christian Life Centre. His son Brian and daughter-in-law Bobbie joined the ministry in 1978 and in 1983 founded the Hills Christian Life Centre. In 1999 the Hills and Sydney Christian Life Centres merged; this was renamed the Hillsong Church two years later.

Brian Houston is listed as a witness to appear before the commission this week. Senior members of the Assemblies of God and a number of its churches, the Hillsong Church, and the Australian Christian Churches are also slated to appear.

On Tuesday afternoon, under questioning from Mark Higgins, the legal representative for Hillsong church and Brian Houston, AHA said that throughout his interactions with the AOG, his preference was that there be no investigation into his allegations by either the church or secular authorities, because he did not want to be exposed.

He also said he was “bitter” about his mother betraying his trust and reporting it to his aunt, pastor Barbara Taylor of the Emmanuel Christian Family Church in 1998.

AHA said he was relieved to then learn that Frank Houston had admitted to it, but still didn’t want the matter investigated.

Higgins also pursued a lengthy line of questioning around the timing of phone calls, and exactly when AHA went through puberty - the time at which AHA had earlier testified Frank Houston stopped abusing him.

Higgins suggested the abuse stopped before the Sydney Christian Life Centre, which Frank Houston founded and which later merged with another to become Hillsong church.

AHA grew audibly frustrated at the repeated questioning of his recollection of dates, and refuted a suggestion from Higgins that he didn’t want an investigation because then he would be “challenged about the truth of what [he] knew to be true.”

“No, what was the truth was what happened to me, and I did not want to be exposed and dragged through the muck and mire of what I’m going through now,” AHA replied.

Houston did not question AHA’s accusation that Brian Houston blamed AHA for “tempting” his father, despite Brian Houston denying it in a statement outside of the royal commission just hours before.

Houston’s statement said: “I acknowledge the courage of the victim in taking the stand today to outline the trauma he has suffered by Frank Houston.

“However I disagree with his perception of the phone call with me and I strongly refute that I – at any time – accused him of tempting my father. I would never say this and I do not believe this.”