Brian Houston case deferred until 2022

Brian Houston denies concealing information about his father's abuse. (Photo: Hillsong)

The court case in Sydney against Hillsong senior pastor Brian Houston has been delayed until next year.

Australian website Eternity News reports that a local court deferred his case until 27 January 2022 when the date of his full trial is due to be announced.

Houston has pleaded not guilty via his lawyer.

New South Wales police charged Houston in August with concealing information about sexual abuse committed by his father in the 1970s.

The charge followed a two-year police investigation.

The elder Houston abused a number of children in his native New Zealand, but the case before the court concerns the abuse of Australian survivor Brian Sengstock as a young boy.

In a statement in July, Brian Houston insisted that he did not find out about his father's abuse until 30 years after the event and that he was honouring the victim's "multiple requests not to inform the police".

"The law at the time granted an exception to reporting a crime of this nature when a person had a reasonable excuse not to report," Houston claimed.

"This state law has since further clarified that this type of situation - when an adult victim of child abuse explicitly does not want the matter reported - qualified as a reasonable excuse under the law."

News
Faith is increasingly about personal experience and authenticity, report suggests
Faith is increasingly about personal experience and authenticity, report suggests

Faith is "becoming an increasingly individualised and self-directed journey" among young people, research has found.

Christians back MSP's efforts to ban prostitution in Scotland
Christians back MSP's efforts to ban prostitution in Scotland

The SNP has been slow to act on the issue.

Moves to make RE part of the National Curriculum welcomed
Moves to make RE part of the National Curriculum welcomed

Scrapping the English Baccalaureate has also been welcomed by the Church of England and the worlds of theatre, art and music.

Verdict due in 'conversion therapy' case against ex-gay Christian
Verdict due in 'conversion therapy' case against ex-gay Christian

An EU official declared it should be illegal to say a person has left homosexuality.