Inquiry hears pastor abused young boy

Sky News
October 7, 2014

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/local/sydney/2014/10/07/inquiry-hears-pastor-abused-young-boy.html

Serious child sexual abuse allegations were made against the man behind the evangelical movement that created Hillsong but never reported to police, a national inquiry has heard.

The child sexual abuse royal commission on Tuesday was told a special executive meeting of Pentecostal churches was held at the Qantas Club at Sydney Airport in 1999.

The meeting heard Frank Houston had confessed to abusing a seven-year-old boy in Sydney decades earlier.

The information was conveyed by Frank Houston's son, Brian Houston, a senior pastor at Hillsong Church and who was at the time president of the Assemblies of God (AoG) - the affiliation of Pentecostal churches which investigated complaints against ministers.

Counsel assisting the royal commission Simeon Beckett said the commission would hear 'no allegations of child sexual abuse' against Frank Houston were referred to police and 'no civil proceedings have been commenced in Australia'.

The alleged victim, known for legal reasons as AHA, would give evidence that in 1969 and 1970 Frank Houston stayed with his family in Sydney.

AHA would tell how the pastor came to his bedroom at night and touch him sexually, Mr Beckett said in his opening statement.

Thirty years later - in 1998 - AHA's mother reported the abuse to a pastor, Barbara Taylor, at another church.

Brian Houston was told of the allegation in May 1998, and later told Paster Taylor he was in 'shock'.

Pastor Taylor would tell the inquiry Brian Houston said his father had admitted to a lesser incident and he would be stood down from preaching, Mr Beckett said.

The commission will also hear Frank Houston called AHA several times to 'organise some money' for compensation.

At a meeting at McDonald's in Sydney's north Frank Houston asked for forgiveness and allegedly offered AHA $10,000 and passed him a napkin to sign, the commission would hear.

Two months later, when he hadn't received the money, AHA rang Brian Houston and received a cheque two weeks later.

The minutes of the December 1999 executive meeting at the Qantas Club would show AHA did not make a formal complaint, but that Frank Houston had confessed, Mr Beckett said.

The minutes also noted Frank Houston was already suspended and it was agreed he be invited to enter the 'AoG restoration program'.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing into how the AoG handled child sex abuse complaints continues.