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Pastor pal of Australian PM charged with concealing sex offences

Pastor pal of Australian PM charged with concealing sex offences

Last updated on: August 6, 2021 at 2:29 pm by Barry Duke

Pastor pal of Australian PM charged with concealing sex offences 2021-08-06T14:29:11+02:00 Barry Duke

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Brian Houston and buddy Scott Morrison (inset). Images via YouTube

HILLSONG founder Brian Houston, has been charged with allegedly concealing information about child sexual abuse following a two-year investigation.

According to this report, Houston is accused of failing to report alleged abuse by his father, William Francis “Frank” Houston, who died in 2004. The evangelist has been based in the United States for several months, and has been ordered to attend a Sydney court on October 5

Sources close to the investigation have revealed Houston, 67, is accused of failing to report the historic alleged abuse of a young male by his late father.

A NSW Police spokesperson said:

Police will allege in court the man 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.

Detectives served his lawyer with a court attendance notice, which requires the pastor to appear before a Sydney magistrate on October 5.

Houston is a personal friend of Scott Morrison who wanted him invited to the White House state dinner President Donald Trump held in the Prime Minister’s honour in 2019.

However the White House rejected Houston.

A NSW Police statement issued on Thursday said:

In 2019, an investigation commenced by officers attached to The Hills Police Area Command into reports a 67-year-old man had knowingly concealed information relating to child sexual offences.

Following extensive investigations, detectives requested the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) review their brief of evidence.

In 2015 the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which examined allegations against Houston’s father Frank, above, found neither the executive of the Assemblies of God in Australia nor Brian Houston referred the allegations to police.

It found Brian Houston “had a conflict of interest” in assuming responsibility for dealing with the allegations:

Because he was both the National President of the Assemblies of God in Australia and the son of Mr Frank Houston, the alleged perpetrator.

The Wall Street Journal broke the story, during Morrison’s US trip, of the PM’s nomination of Houston for the dinner and the rejection.

Morrison dodged questions at the time and later about whether he had put Houston’s name up. He said the story was “gossip”.

It wasn’t until March 2020 that he confirmed it, telling 2GB:

We put forward a number of names, that included Brian, but not everybody whose names were put forward were invited.

He said he had known Houston a long time.

In the 2GB interview, Morrison, a Pentecostal Christian, was asked whether he was not aware that Houston was under police investigation at the time. He replied:

These are not things I follow closely. All I know is that they’re a very large and very well attended and well-supported organisation here in Australia.

They are very well known in the United States – are so well known that Brian was actually at the White House a few months after I was. So the President obviously didn’t have an issue with it. And that’s why I think that’s where the matter rests.

In 2014 Houston accused a boy aged seven of “tempting” his paedophile father, who abused as many as nine boys across Australia and New Zealand between 1965 and 1977.

A Guardian report earlier this year said:

Morrison certainly wants Australians to know he’s a Pentecostal Christian (which is a small but rapidly growing denomination in Australia) – but he gets uncomfortable, escalating swiftly to grumpy, if persistent questions follow. He senses mockery in inquiry. As he put it to me last year: “I’m uneasy. It always becomes an issue if I talk about it. It’s such a personal thing, and no matter how I explain it, it will be misinterpreted.”

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