Crime & Justice

Hillsong Church founder in Australia to face hiding child abuse charges

Sydney, Australia, Oct 1 (EFE).- Hillsong Church founder Pastor Brian Houston is in Australia to face charges related to the alleged coverup of child sex abuse by his late father in the 1970s.

Houston and his wife were seen Friday leaving a Sydney hotel after completing a mandatory two-week quarantine following his arrival from the United States.

He avoided speaking to the media about the allegations.

Houston will appear in a Sydney court on Tuesday.

The police, in a statement in August, said Houston “knew information relating to the sexual abuse of a young male in the 1970s, and failed to bring that information to the attention of police.”

Houston has claimed innocence, indicating that he was willing to defend the allegations.

His father, Frank Houston, was accused, in a 2015 report, of sexually abusing a seven-year-old boy in 1969 and 1970 when he stayed in a Sydney house.

A government commission that investigated the response of Australian institutions to the sexual abuse of minors said the alleged abuse by Frank Houston was known in 1999 when Brian was president of the Pentecostal Church of the Assemblies of God in Australia.

The commission alleged the junior Houston concealed the information because he was the son of the alleged pedophile and had “a conflict of interest” due to the position he held.

The commission noted the son confronted his father, and the senior Houston confessed to the abuse.

The Hillsong church argued that its founder “acted appropriately” in taking action against the abuser.

Frank Houston, a leader of the Assemblies of God in the 1960s and 1970s in New Zealand and Australia, is suspected of sexually abusing nine minors.

Frank Houston moved permanently to the city of Sydney in 1977.

He founded another movement that was the forerunner of the Hillsong Church, founded by his son in 1983.

He passed away in 2004. EFE

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