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
Being people of peace
Being people of peace

It would be fair to say that the pace and complexity of life works against us finding any peace.

Christians and religious nones alike object to AI-generated social media videos
Christians and religious nones alike object to AI-generated social media videos

Evangelicals, nones and non-denominational Christians reject AI-generated videos, a new study has found.

What we don’t know about Christmas
What we don’t know about Christmas

Every Christmas people are bombarded with images of the Nativity in Christmas cards, the lyrics of songs and Nativity plays. Yet many of the images embedded in our minds are pure tradition. In fact, there is a lot that we do not know. This is the story … 

Richard Moth appointed as new Archbishop of Westminster
Richard Moth appointed as new Archbishop of Westminster

Bishop Richard Moth has been confirmed as the new Archbishop of Westminster, the most senior post in the Catholic Church in England and Wales.