AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail (UK)
Hillsong founder ‘accused sex abuse victim of tempting his paedophile father’ as hearing is told of $10,000 hush money offer scribbled on a McDonald’s napkin
By AMY ZINIAK and AAP and NELSON GROOM FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA
Hillsong Church senior pastor Brian Houston accused a child sex abuse victim of tempting his father Frank, a royal comission into institutional paedophilia heard.
The hearing was also told evidence would be given about a meeting at McDonald’s in Sydney’s north between Frank Houston and the victim, known as AHA, where the church leader asked for forgiveness and allegedly offered $10,000 and passed him a napkin to sign.
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, he told the commission.
‘I would wake up petrified and I would stay very still,’ he said.
He said the abuse left him feeling ashamed, and he now suffered depression.
AHA said his family was very 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’.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.