Brian Houston, founder of Hillsong Church, recently took to Instagram for the first time since magistrate Gareth Christofi found him not guilty of hiding his father’s sexual abuse.
The magistrate’s ruling was handed down just over two years after Houston was charged (Aug. 5, 2021) by the New South Wales (NSW) Police Force for allegedly concealing child sex offenses. The NSW Police Force charged Houston for failing to report the sexual abuse of a 7-year-old boy committed by his father, Frank Houston, during the 1970s. Brian became aware of the crime in 1999.
Brian resigned from Hillsong in March 2022 after he was placed on disciplinary sabbatical for substance abuse and inappropriate activity involving women. The former megachurch pastor pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol earlier this year in a Southern California court. He was sentenced to three years probation and $140 in fines.
RELATED: Brian Houston Found Not Guilty of Covering Up His Father’s Child Sex Abuse
“Well yesterday a very long saga came to an end,” Brian posted on Instagram. “Finally I was vindicated by an In-depth judgment which compellingly pulled apart the prosecution’s arguments one by one.”
Brian said that the magistrate “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 accused the media of “building a narrative on a completely false premise regarding the circumstances.”
He said that he believes certain media outlets have purposely omitted his testimony regarding when he first became aware of his father’s sexual abuse and that the survivor, who was 37 years old at that time, didn’t want to involve the police.
“It was a historic complaint from 1970 when the victim was 7 years old,” Brian added, “I was 15 (I was completely 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.”
Brian said that “documentaries have lied, twisted facts, and confused timelines.”
RELATED: Brian Houston Pleads Guilty to DUI, Sentenced to 3 Years of Probation
Those documentaries have also “intentionally misled people with a narrative hell bent on discrediting an influential church and turning a noble name into a bad name,” Brian said, sharing that he plans to speak about this in more depth in the coming days.
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