Brian Houston has been crooning and crowing after being acquitted on charges that he concealed his father’s sexual abuse of a minor by not reporting it to the police. It’s an odd boast, given that he did conceal it and did not go to the police after learning that his father was a pedophile. Still, Sydney Court Magistrate Gareth Christofi ruled that Houston had a “reasonable excuse” for his inaction, saying that he believed Houston’s testimony that he stayed silent because the victim did not want him to say anything.
While it may be true that the victim did not want Houston to go to the police, (the victim denies this) this does not excuse Houston’s moral culpability. By failing to inform law enforcement and get his father off the streets, Frank was free to travel, preach and teach for many years, and who knows how many more children the serial pedophile abused and molested in the meantime.