Hillsong's Brian Houston and His Daughter Reflect After Brian Has Been Cleared of Concealing His Father's Abuse

After a long-running hearing, the founder of Hillsong Church Pastor Brian Houston was found not guilty on Thursday of concealing the crimes of his paedophile father. Australian prosecutors had argued Brian Houston tried to cover up his father's sexual abuse of a child in the 1970s. The church founder only learned of the abuse decades later and said he did not report it because the victim, by then an adult, did not want police involved.

Frank Houston, who died in 2004, is believed to have used his position as a pastor to abuse as many as nine boys.

Brian writes, "Well yesterday a very long saga came to an end. Finally I was vindicated by an In-depth judgment which compellingly pulled apart the prosecution's arguments one by one. The magistrate (judge) described my actions as the exact opposite to a cover up, in that I immediately began to tell people of my fathers crimes including large crowds."

Brian wisely warns readers not to believe everything the media espouses. "Sections of the media have been complicit by building a narrative on a completely false premise regarding the circumstances. They purposely omitted in their narrative that when I first became aware of the allegations against my father the victim was a 37 year old man who did not want the police involved. It was a historic complaint from 1970 when he was 7 and I was 15 (and I was obviously unaware of the abuse until I was 45.) It has also been ignored that these abuses did not happen at Hillsong but rather many years before Hillsong Church existed.

"Documentaries have lied , twisted facts and confused timelines and intentionally misled people with a narrative hell bent on discrediting an influential church and turning a noble name into a bad name. I will speak about that in more depth in the days ahead. Thank you to those who have stood with me every step of the way while others ducked and weaved."

Brian's daughter, Laura Toganivalu, 36, shared on Instagram.  "Today, I sat beside my Dad in a courtroom and exhaled with an overwhelming sense of relief & gratitude," Laura Toganivalu, 36, said in a post shared to Instagram on Thursday night. 

"However, today is still marked by the painful reality that victims of abuse have to live with forever, and for that, my heart will always remain heavy."

She recalled for the first time, the moment her father confided in her about her grandfather's sexual abuse of children in the church while she was just a teenager. "I came home from school one day and my Dad sat me down and told me he had recently learned of evil acts perpetrated by my grandfather toward a child," she wrote.

"I will never forget the pain & trembling in his voice as he told me these things and grappled with the reality that his father was not the mean he knew him to be."

Outside court on Thursday, Brian Houston told reporters he wanted to "impress his sadness" to his father's victim, Brett Sengstock, and all the victims of the late New Zealand and Australian church leader. 

Tags : Brian Houston Hillsong hillsong church Frank Houston Laura Toganivalu