Frank Houston

William Francis 'Frank' Houston (22 April 1922 -- 8 November 2004) was a New Zealand-born Pentecostal pastor who served as General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God in New Zealand from 1965 to 1977, and later founded the Sydney Christian Life Centre in Australia, which eventually merged into Hillsong Church under his son Brian Houston's leadership. Frank Houston was a serial child sex abuser who used his position of spiritual authority to prey on young boys for decades. At least nine victims have been identified across New Zealand and Australia, with evidence suggesting the abuse may have begun as early as the 1940s during his time as a Salvation Army officer and continued through the 1970s. His earliest known alleged offenses occurred between 1945 and 1948 at a Salvation Army boys' home in Temuka, New Zealand. During his tenure as superintendent of the New Zealand Assemblies of God, he sexually abused boys from church families, including at least six boys at the Lower Hutt Assemblies of God and others in the wider Wellington region. His most extensively documented victim is Brett Sengstock (referred to as 'AHA' during the Royal Commission), who was sexually abused from the age of seven beginning in 1970 when Frank Houston stayed with the Sengstock family during ministry visits to Sydney. The abuse continued until Sengstock was twelve years old. Frank Houston would sneak into the boy's bedroom at night to assault him, including on occasions when his own teenage son Brian was sleeping in the next room. Another named victim, David Cowdrey, was eight years old in 1962 when Houston began abusing him during Saturday night prayer meetings at the Cowdrey family home in Tawa, a Wellington suburb. As Cowdrey recalled: 'Frank would visit my room on the excuse of going to the toilet. This black shadow would come into my room.' In 1977, Frank Houston moved his family to Sydney, Australia, where he founded the Sydney Christian Life Centre. Multiple sources allege this move was motivated by looming police attention in New Zealand regarding his abuse. In Sydney, he built one of Australia's most prominent Pentecostal churches, which grew to include a 600-seat auditorium and a Bible and Creative Arts College. He was regarded as 'almost like royalty' in Assemblies of God circles and was described as 'the father of Sydney's Pentecostal churches.' The abuse was first reported to the church in 1999 when Brett Sengstock's mother brought allegations forward. Brian Houston, then serving as National President of the Assemblies of God in Australia, confronted his father, who admitted to the abuse but claimed it was a 'once-off incident' done at a time when he was 'emotionally low.' Brian Houston forced his father to quietly resign with a church pension. Frank Houston's ministerial credentials were suspended, but the denomination only informed other ministers of a 'serious moral failure' -- a euphemism that deliberately concealed the criminal nature of child sexual abuse. No report was ever made to police. Frank Houston met with Brett Sengstock at a McDonald's restaurant and signed a napkin agreeing to pay $10,000 (AUD), which Sengstock testified was 'hush money' to buy his silence. When the payment was delayed, Sengstock called Brian Houston, who allegedly told him: 'You know this is all your fault. You tempted my father' -- blaming a seven-year-old victim for his own rape. Brian Houston denied making this statement, but Sengstock insisted under oath: 'He did say that.' By November 2000, internal church investigations had discovered several additional cases of child abuse. Despite this, neither Brian Houston nor the Assemblies of God executive reported the crimes to police. Frank Houston was allowed to tender a resignation letter and retire with a pension after a meeting of 'special elders' at Hillsong Church, who thanked him 'for his immeasurable contribution to the church.' The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Case Study 18) investigated the matter in October 2014. The Commission found that Brian Houston failed to report the allegations to police as required under Section 316 of the Crimes Act, had a clear conflict of interest as both the National President and the son of the perpetrator, and was the sole conduit of critical information between his father, the victim, and the church executive. The Commission also found the national executive 'did not follow their own policy' and 'failed to recognise and respond to Pastor Brian Houston's conflict of interest.' Prosecutor Gareth Harrison later argued there was an 'entrenched reverence' for Frank Houston that 'enforced a culture of silence.' Victims also provided testimony to the New Zealand Royal Commission into Abuse in Care, including David Cowdrey in a private session. New Zealand Police found only one formal complaint on record against Frank Houston, lodged in 2019 -- decades after his death. Frank Houston died on 8 November 2004, aged 82, in Sydney. His wife Hazel had died six months earlier. Brian Houston described his father's death as resulting from an apparent stroke in the bath after years of dementia, though the severity of that dementia has been disputed -- a 2004 audio recording of Frank Houston preaching at a Maitland church showed him coherent and aware, contradicting claims that he was 'incoherent' and 'very, very given over to dementia.' No certification of Frank Houston's illness was ever produced at the Royal Commission. Mourners at his funeral included politicians and prominent church figures. Brian Houston himself described his father as a 'serial paedophile,' stating: 'I have no doubt now my father was a serial paedophile and we'll probably never know the extent of it.' Pastor Don Barry of Hamilton Assemblies of God, who uncovered 'five or six' additional cases, said they represented 'the tip of the iceberg.' Brett Sengstock, regardless of court outcomes, said he had been handed a 'life sentence.' Frank Houston's case stands as one of the most devastating examples of how institutional power, spiritual authority, and family loyalty can be weaponized to protect a predator and silence victims for decades. The church he built became the foundation of Hillsong, one of the world's largest and most influential megachurches -- an empire constructed by a man who systematically raped children entrusted to his spiritual care.