SEEKING ANSWERS

Hillsong Church Founder Won’t Say If He Thought Dad Deserved Jail for Sexual Abuse

Brian Houston was pressed by a judge for his opinion about his father’s confession.

The founder of the Hillsong megachurch on Tuesday avoided telling a judge if he thought his father should’ve been jailed after confessing to sexually abusing a 7-year-old boy. Brian Houston was told by his pastor father, Frank Houston, in 1999 about the abuse of a child at the victim’s house in Sydney in 1970. Frank died in 2004 and Brian is currently on trial in Australia for allegedly concealing his father’s crime between the time he was told about it and his father’s death. Brian has pleaded not guilty. “Did you think your father should go to jail for what he’d done?” Magistrate Gareth Christofi asked Brian in court on Tuesday. “I knew that would always be a possibility till the day he died,” Houston answered. The magistrate then asked the question again, saying it was a matter of opinion. “I hear your question and I can’t remember processing that thought,” Brian answered.