With fire and brimstone he preached the word of God and condemned the evils of sin.

But throughout all of that, preacher Frank Houston reportedly lived a shocking lie, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard today.

“I remember he would be touching me in inappropriately… I would be petrified I would lay very still,” one of his victims, who can only be identified as AHA, told the commission.

AHA was aged seven when Frank Houston would come to his room, lie upon him, fondle him and masturbate him, he told the commission.

But the pastor was considered royalty within Australia’s Pentecostal ministry in the 1970s and would go on to see his son, Brian, found the multi-million dollar Hillsong success story.

AHA’s family was closely involved in the church and when he eventually told his mother in 1978, she told him he “did not want to be responsible for turning people from the church and sending them to hell”.

But in 2000, Houston was desperate for forgiveness, offering AHA $10,000 as compensation in a Thornleigh McDonald’s restaurant, the inquiry heard.

Houston asked his victim to sign the agreement on a “food-stained” napkin during the meeting, reportedly telling him: “I want your forgiveness for this, I don't want to die and have to face God with this on my head”.