High-profile evangelist Frank Houston continued to preach and deliver televised sermons despite being suspended from his church over child molestation claims, a witness told the royal commission on child sexual abuse.
Barbara Taylor, a senior pastor with Emmanuel Christian Family Church in Plumpton, told the royal commission she had raised concerns about the sex abuse allegations with the state executive of the Assemblies of God in 1998, but it took months before officials took action.
Ms Taylor said she raised the alarm after learning that Houston allegedly molested a young boy, given the pseudonym AHA, for a number of years from the late 1960s.
She told the commission she voiced her concerns in 1998 but Houston was not suspended until December 1999, at a special meeting of the executive of the Assemblies of God held at Sydney Airport.
At the time, Frank Houston's son, Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston, was the national president of the Assemblies of God, now known as Australian Christian Churches.
A prolific note taker, Ms Taylor claimed she had heard that Frank Houston was continuing to preach in Canberra and give televised sermons after his suspension, a matter she raised in a letter to his son.
She said Brian Houston told her his father, who died in 2004, had confessed to a one-off incident and was receiving "restoration counselling".
She told the commission she felt Houston snr had played down the abuse claim, allegedly only admitting to being in a room when AHA walked through it with no clothes on.
"I took it that [Frank Houston] was trying to trivialise the incident," she said.
She told the commission that AHA informed her Houston snr had apologised to him in a tearful phone call.
"I think he said [Frank Houston] cried," she said. "[AHA] was convinced ... it was just crocodile tears."
During her initial conversations with AHA, she advised him to let the church handle his allegation of abuse, rather than the secular courts.
"I felt the church should discipline Frank Houston and stand him down immediately," she said. "I felt that the church had a responsibility to clean up its own house."
She did not consider involving the police at that time but told the commission: "If anyone came to me today with a report of sexual abuse ... I would send them straight to the police."
The Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard further claims that Frank Houston molested six young boys in New Zealand in the 1960s.
Brian Houston is expected to give evidence on Thursday.
The public hearing is examining the response of Australian Christian Churches and affiliated Pentecostal churches to allegations of child sexual abuse.
Hillsong Church, Northside Christian College – now known as Encompass Church – and a Pentecostal church on the Sunshine Coast are included in the inquiry.
The hearing, before Justice Jennifer Coate, is expected to continue until October 17.
