Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse - Day 93 - Sunshine Coast ACC - Peterson / Swenson
Channel: Hillsong ACCountability
Date: 2022-01-23

In this video:
Christian Peterson:  01:24:54 (Pastor at the Sunshine Coast church who took over from his father-in-law, Ian Lehmann)
Gary Swenson 03:46:25 (State Ministries Director of the Australian Christian Churches in Queensland)
Recorded: Day 93, 16th October 2014
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Between 2013 and 2017 the Australian Federal Government held a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

49 case studies were examined. This and adjacent video files in this playlist relate to multiple abuse cases within the Australian Christian Churches (previously the Australian Assemblies of God), of which Pastor Brian Houston from Hillsong Church was the National President from 1997-2009.

The Royal Commission's report found that Brian Houston failed to manage a conflict of interest in the crimes of his father Pastor Frank Houston's abuse of up to 9 boys in Australia and New Zealand. The Commission found the ACC failed to implement its own procedures for reports of abuse, did not report the abuse to the police, did not interview the victims, did not interview Frank Houston and did not disclose truthfully the reasons for Frank Houston's retirement to congregants.

As a result of his testimony in this case study, Brian Houston has been charged by the police with concealment of child sexual offences, and is at time of writing (Jan 2022) awaiting trial before the NSW courts. Despite resigning from all Board positions at Hillsong, Houston remains the 'Global Senior Pastor'.

His key lieutenant, Pastor John McMartin, also giving testimony before this Commission, presently faces separate charges before the NSW Courts for the sexual assault of a teenage parishioner in 2013 - just before the testimony he gave in these videos explaining how he was responsible for the ACC's official policy response to sexual abuse.

In this video, testimony is heard from Christian Peterson, the Pastor at the Sunshine Coast church who took over from his father-in-law, Ian Lehmann.
Also testifying is Gary Swenson, the then State Ministries Director of the Australian Christian Churches in Queensland.
It is ongoing testimony relating to the abuse of a 13 year old male abused by the youth pastor, Jonathan Baldwin, of the Queensland church, between 2004-2006 (see video from previous day #92).

Baldwin was jailed for a maximum of eight years in 2009 for the offences.

In their findings, the commissioners expressed the view that "Dr Lehmann failed to recognise the indicators of risk of child sexual abuse ... despite personally observing some indicative behaviour and receiving reports of concerns from members of the pastoral team and directors of the board of the Sunshine Coast Church".

This footage is reproduced with the express permission of the Records Department of the Attorney General's Department of Australia.
Transcripts of the testimony and the Commission's findings are available at the RC website:

https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au