Hillsong’s Brian Houston failed to report abuse and had conflict of interest – royal commission

According to The Guardian Brian Houston, who was national president of the Assemblies of God in Australia at the time, neglected to inform authorities that his father was a child sexual abuser, even though he knew about it:

Brian HoustonBrian Houston, the founder of the Hillsong Church, failed to alert the police about allegations his father had sexually assaulted children, and had a conflict of interest when he assumed responsibility for dealing with the accusations, a royal commission has found.

In October 2014 the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse examined the responses of the Assemblies of God in Australia (now Australian Christian Churches) to allegations against three men, including Frank Houston, a preacher who helped build the Pentecostal movement in Australia and who died in 2004.

Frank Houston had abused up to nine boys in Australia and New Zealand, and in its final report on the case released on Monday, the commission found multiple failings within the church executive – at the time led by Frank Houston’s son Brian – in responding.

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