Facing his flock..., by Daniel Piotrowski And Lillian Radulova, Daily Mail (October 12, 2014)

Facing his flock: Hillsong pastor Brian Houston defends not reporting his paedophile father to police in address to his congregation

In his first sermon since testifying about his father's sexual abuse, Hillsong's senior pastor Brian Houston defended his lack of action upon finding out his father was a paedophile.

Mr Houston told the congregation of thousands at Baulkham Hills in New South Wales on Sunday that he did not approach police because Frank Houston's victim, named AHA, did not want to prompt an investigation into the abuse.

'You had a situation where this was the first time I had ever heard about my father's abuses,' Mr Houston said to the huge crowd, according to The Daily Telegraph.

'There was a victim, a survivor, who was adamant he did not want a police investigation and he didn't want a church investigation.

The Hillsong leader also suggested that no other church leaders advised him to approach police about the abuse allegations, despite also being informed of the claims.

'So, I genuinely believed at the time, by the way no one gave me any advice to counter this, that if he wanted to go to police, he was 36, he could,' Mr Houston said.

'Obviously if it was someone who was still a child we would have had no choice but to report it. It seems I was wrong and that will form part of the findings.'

During the sermon, Mr Houston also defended both his and the Church's roles in privately paying the victim $10,000 in compensation for the abuse, saying it was between only his father and AHA.

'There have been reports of money being paid to the victim. Again for clarification, this was between my father and the victim,' he said to the following, 'It had nothing to do with me or Hillsong Church.'

Mr Houston first heard the allegations levelled by AHA in late October 1999 during his weekly meeting with general manager George Aghajanian.

He originally told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse that he did not immediately report the incident to the police as he did not want to 'pre-empt' the victim.

'It hit me in a ten second period, in a wave,' he told the commission, 'you never forget' the moment you find out your father is a paedophile.

He told the hearing he first he had to get his head around his father being a homosexual, before he realised Mr Aghanajanian was talking about paedophilia.

Mr Houston then cried and went home. 'I was devastated, to be honest with you,' he said. 'Totally devastated.'

Last Tuesday, AHA told the commission Frank Houston would stay with his family when he came to Sydney from New Zealand in the 1970s.

AHA was seven when Frank Houston would come to his room, lie on him, fondle him and masturbate him, the alleged victim told the commission.

'I would wake up petrified and I would stay very still,' AHA said.

He said the abuse left him feeling ashamed, and he now suffered depression.

Mr Houston told the hearing that if AHA was under 18 - he was in his mid-30s at the time of the complaint - then he was 'absolutely certain' they would have gone to the police.

'Rightly or wrongly, I thought I would be preempting the victim if I were to have called the police at that point,' Mr Houston said.

Rules were set aside by the executive of the Pentecostal movement when it came to dealing with allegations against Frank Houston the national inquiry was told last week.

Keith Ainge, former national secretary of the Assemblies of God, an umbrella body for the Pentecostal churches, said that Brian Houston was the only conduit for information to the executive about allegations against his father.

The church elder told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that the first the national executive heard of allegations against Frank Houston was when his son Brian Houston called a special meeting of the executive on December 22, 1999.

Brian Houston was national president of the AoG. He had already suspended his father when he called the meeting.

Pastor Ainge on Thursday said that under AoG rules Frank Houston should have had his credentials withdrawn for abusing a child.

Instead the meeting on December 22 suspended them for two years and recommended that Frank Houston enter a restorative program.

In reply to questions from counsel assisting the commission Simeon Beckett, Pastor Ainge said he truthfully could not answer why the policy was not followed 'except to say that it was a new policy and not fully understood and the fact there was no formal complaint and the complainant did not give his name'.

Mr Beckett: 'according to Brian Houston?'

When asked about Brian Houston's conflict of interest and the executive's dependence on him to investigate his father and take action Pastor Ainge: 'Yes, we agree it was a difficult situation from that perspective ...'

Mr Beckett: You were relying on what Brian Houston said about the complainant not wanting it to go to the police; is that correct?

Pastor Ainge: 'Correct'.

Mr Beckett: And you had not had an independent person deal with the complainant?

Pastor Ainge: That's correct.

The hearing continues.