The long road to prosecution: why did it take six years for police to charge Brian Houston?

This article is the third part of Sins of the Father, a series on Brian Houston and Hillsong Church. For part two, click here.

Note: this article discusses child sexual abuse.

In 2015 the McLellan royal commission into child sex abuse referred information on Hillsong Pastor Brian Houston’s conduct to the NSW Police, recommending they investigate if there was a case to answer of concealment of information on child sex abuse.  

The royal commission had found that Brian Houston made “no attempt” to report his father Frank to the police at the time a confession was made to him in 1999, despite Brian Houston’s evidence that he had no doubt that his father’s conduct was criminal.

That was six years ago. Why did it take so long for NSW Police to charge Houston?

NSW Police

The referral to NSW Police occurred when commissioner Andrew Scipione was in charge. 

Scipione was appointed in 2007 and stayed in the job until 2017, making him one of NSW’s longest-serving commissioners. He was a regular presence at meetings of the Sydney Prayer Breakfast — a network of devout Christians attracting politicians and business people.

Scipione and the Houstons had history. As deputy police commissioner in 2004 Scipione attended Frank Houston’s funeral. In the month after he retired in 2017, he was a guest at a Hillsong event, speaking on the subject of building stronger families. A promotion for the event shows him still in his police uniform.

Scipione had also attended at least one Hillsong annual conference and “numerous services” while police commissioner and was reportedly on a first-name basis with Brian Houston, according to NSW MLC David Shoebridge, speaking in Parliament.

What happened to the investigation?

Publicly there were few clues as to why the investigation was taking so long.

By 2018 Shoebridge wanted answers. He raised the question in Parliament of why it was that “nothing had happened” three years after the royal commission had delivered “its damning report”.

At parliamentary hearings the same month, Shoebridge pursued the question with Scipione’s successor, current NSW Police commissioner Mick Fuller.

“Will you review whether or not there were arrangements put in place to ensure that there was no conflict of interest between [Scipione], who had a friendship with Mr Brian Houston, and the police undertaking the investigation arising [from the royal commission]?” Shoebridge asked.

Fuller didn’t answer directly. “My advice is that the matter is still open with us,” he told Shoebridge, adding that “perhaps” he could provide “further information out of session”, though that would be “not so much the commentary around the previous commissioner and the relationships”.

Fuller, however, disclosed that Brian Houston had declined “to be interviewed or assist police with the investigation” in mid 2016. The police were subsequently given legal advice in late 2016 that there was insufficient evidence to proceed. 

And there it sat, for close to two years, until October 2018. Fuller said that at that point there was a review of the original investigation. It emerged that there had been “a number of issues” regarding “the legalities around the admissibility of available forms of evidence, and sufficiency of evidence”. 

Now though the police were seeking fresh legal advice about the investigation — a reopening which happened to coincide with Shoebridge’s questions and a looming 60 Minutes story in which a victim of abuse, Brett Sengstock, would reveal his identity for the first time.

Shoebridge told Crikey that while he was concerned about a three-year delay in 2018 he “can’t comprehend” why it took six years for the charge to be laid, given that the “critical investigation” had been done by the royal commission. 

No comment from NSW police

NSW Police has refused to answer Crikey‘s questions on why the investigation took so long, and what steps the police had taken to ensure the integrity of the investigation given there was at least the perception that the relevant commissioner had a conflict of interest.

The police media unit said it couldn’t comment because the matter was “before the courts”. Instead it pointed us to a NSW Police media release which said the investigation only began in 2019.

Scipione also declined to address the question of how any conflict of interest was managed on his watch.

“As you are aware, matters relating to Mr Houston are currently before the court and as such, I believe that it would not be appropriate for me to make any comment at this stage,” he replied via email.

“With regards to any delay with the investigation I would refer you to the NSW Police force for any comment they felt appropriate.”

A change in the law 

Charges against Houston have been brought under section 316 of the NSW Crimes Act, which makes it a criminal offence if a person fails to inform police of child sex abuse which that person knows or reasonably should have known occurred.

In 2018 — in what may be a complicating factor for the prosecution — NSW Parliament amended s316 to specify a series of “reasonable excuses” for not informing the police of child sex abuse. One of these was if the victim was an adult when the person learnt of the abuse, and there was reason to believe the victim did not want to involve police. This is the very defence which Brian Houston and Hillsong have advanced for not passing on information about Frank Houston’s offending. 

So what’s the issue? In 1999, when the crime is alleged to have occurred, s316 allowed generally for a “reasonable excuse” — but it did not give specific examples of that. 

The case might then turn on whether or not the victim in question, Brett Sengstock, did or did not want to go to the police — and what Brian Houston’s knowledge was. 

This is precisely what Hillsong has seized on. In a public statement the church points to statements made by Sengstock to the royal commission, which Hillsong says “corroborate” that he “did not want the matter reported to the police”. 

Hillsong has made the case publicly that the NSW government’s 2018 amendment to the law has “further clarified” that Houston’s actions qualified as a reasonable excuse under the law.

It’s over, then, to the prosecution.

If Houston has been charged then why not a host of others?

Evidence at the royal commission showed that at least 20 people, including some who are now the most senior Pentecostal figures in Australia, were aware that Frank Houston had abused Sengstock as a little boy — a crime that Hillsong and the Pentecostal leadership took to describing initially as a “serious moral failure”.

Those who were aware include Pastor Barbara Taylor, an Assemblies of God pastor in Sydney who believed the matter should be dealt with by the church hierarchy. She set about trying to get action at the state and national executive level of the Assemblies of God.   

From there it took close to a year before Brian Houston learnt of the allegation against his father. Along the way nine others were made aware, most being Pentecostal church pastors and employees. 

In 1999 the national executive of the Assemblies of God (now known as the Australian Christian Churches) called a special meeting on how to handle the allegation against Frank Houston. The royal commission later concluded that the group’s national executive — composed of nine senior Pentecostal figures from around Australia — had failed to refer the allegations against Frank Houston to the police. 

In 2000 all eight Hillsong elders discussed how to handle the Frank Houston case — or, as they put it, his “serious moral failure” relating to events of “30 years ago”. The elders were all men who had worked alongside Frank and Brian Houston, and were directors of Houston corporate entities. Five of the men listed in 2000, including Brian Houston, remain as Hillsong elders and are directors of Hillsong entities.

Tomorrow: Frank Houston’s know-how set Hillsong on a path of ever greater riches — just as his secret life as a child sex abuser was buried.

Survivors of abuse can find support by calling Bravehearts at 1800 272 831 or the Blue Knot Foundation at 1300 657 380. The Kids Helpline is 1800 55 1800. Further support is available at Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue is 1300 22 4636.

If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au.