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
Mother’s Day: reflecting the serving heart of God
Mother’s Day: reflecting the serving heart of God

Motherhood reveals something deeply profound about the nature of love.

Being a mother and a leader in a time of war
Being a mother and a leader in a time of war

Marianne Awaraji at SAT-7 ARABIC reflects on being a leader in the workplace and a mother in the home at a time of great uncertainty for the people of Lebanon.

The little-known story of the woman who rescued Mothering Sunday
The little-known story of the woman who rescued Mothering Sunday

15 March 2026, or the fourth Sunday in Lent, is Mothering Sunday in Britain and Ireland. The tradition nearly died and was rescued by a determined vicar’s daughter about a hundred years ago. This is the story …

Mother’s Day: Love that stands
Mother’s Day: Love that stands

This Mother’s Day, let’s do more than send flowers.