Brian Houston has told a court that he met with a lawyer from a leading Sydney firm to make sure there was “no cover up” in a payment his father made to the man he admitted he had in 1970 abused as a child.
The founder of the Hillsong megachurch told a hearing in local Downing Center court on Monday that he attended a meeting at Mallesons law firm in November 2000 where he was shown a document prepared for Brett Sengstock to sign as acceptance of a payment of $10,000.
Brian Houston arrives at the Downing Center court complex in Sydney on Monday 19th December. Credit:Brook Mitchell
Sengstock told the court earlier in the proceedings that he had signed a “napkin” after meeting Frank Houston and another church elder at a McDonald’s restaurant in Thornleigh, seeing the payment as “buying my silence”.
But Brian Houston said he met with the lawyers who drafted the document to make sure “there was no request for silence and nothing was preventing Brett from taking action” going forward.
“Basically, I wanted to be careful there wasn’t a cover-up here,” he said.
Houston, 68, was charged last year with concealment of a serious crime for failing to report his late father’s crime to police between learning of it in 1999 and his father’s death in 2004 . that he had a “reasonable excuse” for not pressing charges.
“I tried to keep my distance from it.”
Hillsong founder Brian Houston, on payment given to a man who was abused by his late father
Houston attorney Phillip Boulten SC has previously indicated that his client’s main reason for not reporting the case was his belief that Brett Sengstock did not want the police involved.
Asked by Magistrate Gareth Christofi what the contract asked Sengstock in return, Houston said “I don’t believe Brett was obligated to do anything”.