Anonymous ID: 8fbef1 June 14, 2023, 6:31 p.m. No.19009491   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9590 >>9792 >>9962 >>0076 >>0176

Kosovo ‘crossed the Rubicon’ – Serbia

 

Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s latest crackdown threatens open war, Belgrade has said

 

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused the ethnic Albanian government in Pristina of trying to provoke a war on Wednesday, after the breakaway province closed the border to all Serbian vehicles and arrested several prominent Serbs.

 

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti ordered the closure of the border after three Kosovo police officers were detained by Serbian security forces on Tuesday morning. He has said that the blockade will remain in effect until the three men are released.

 

Kurti claimed the trio was “abducted” inside Kosovo in “open acts of international aggression” by Serbia. Vucic has said they were on the other side of the line of control and that he had proof.

 

“They were arrested 1.8 kilometers from the administrative line,” Vucic told the state broadcaster RTS on Wednesday evening. “That’s pretty far from the place where they left their car. Kurti says they were 300 meters from the line. What were they doing 300 meters from the line, without telling KFOR?” he added, referring to the NATO peacekeeping mission.

 

The blockade is an attempt to starve the Serbs in the north of Kosovo and force them out of their homes, Vucic argued.

 

Kurti “wants to start a war at all costs,” the Serbian president added. “The Rubicon has been crossed and it will be hard to get back to normal.”

 

Vucic also objected to Tuesday’s arrests of two prominent Serbs, whom the ethnic Albanian government accused of organizing the “attack” on NATO peacekeepers last month. He claimed that the EU and NATO gave him guarantees there would be no arrests, but did nothing to stop Kurti.

 

EU foreign policy commissioner Josep Borrell sent a letter to Kurti on Wednesday urging him to “de-escalate” the situation. In what amounted to unusually strong language from Brussels, Borrell wrote that Pristina needs to “take the opinions of EULEX and KFOR fully into account and treat them as partners, which also means coordinating with them in advance,” which was not the case on Tuesday. EULEX is the European bloc’s civilian mission tasked with monitoring Kosovo.

 

“As 27 EU Member States have made it very clear, failure to de-escalate will result in negative consequences,” Borrell warned.

 

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has already canceled the meeting with Kurti scheduled for Wednesday, saying it could not be held due to the “hourly worsening of Kosovo’s relations with the entire Euro-Atlantic community.”

 

Kurti’s crackdown has gone beyond just the Serbs, however. His government has also revoked the license of the privately owned TV outlet ‘Klan Kosova’, which the head of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo described as “an unprecedented act aimed against media freedoms.”

 

Ramush Haradinaj, a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and leader of the AAK opposition party, was quoted by local media on Wednesday as saying that Kurti was “threatening Kosovo’s alliance with the US and NATO” and called for a no-confidence vote against the PM.

 

NATO deployed troops in Kosovo in 1999, after a 78-day bombing campaign against Serbia. Belgrade has refused to recognize Pristina’s 2008 declaration of independence.

 

https://www.rt.com/news/578040-kosovo-serbia-rubicon-eu/

Anonymous ID: 8fbef1 June 14, 2023, 7:10 p.m. No.19009651   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9792 >>9962 >>0076 >>0176

Human Brains, Skin From Harvard Morgue Sold On Black Market, Feds Say

 

Several people stole and sold human remains, including brains and skin, from Harvard Medical School’s morgue, federal prosecutors say.

 

A grand jury has indicted Cedric Lodge, 55, the morgue manager, and his wife, in the criminal plot, which lasted from 2018 to earlier this year, according to the complaint.

 

The federal complaint was filed in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where one of the defendants lives.

 

Lodge allegedly allowed buyers to come into the morgue and pick and choose what remains they wanted to buy. He himself also allegedly stole parts of donated cadavers including brains, skin, and bones, took them home to his New Hampshire residence, and shipped them to buyers by mail.

 

Six people, Lodge’s wife Denise Lodge, Katrina Maclean, Joshua Taylor, Mathew Lampi, Jeremy Pauley, and a mortician from Arkansas have all been charged in the scheme.

 

All six are charged by a federal grand jury with conspiracy and transporting stolen goods across state lines.

 

They face up to 15 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said.

 

The details of the alleged black market are gruesome.

 

 

MacLean allegedly paid $600 for two desiccated faces from the morgue in 2020. MacLean also allegedly sent human skin to Pauley.

 

Pauley, meanwhile, is accused of buying the remains of two stillborn babies from a mortuary employee in Arkansas.

 

Taylor allegedly sent Denise Lodge $200 with a memo reading “braiiiiiins.” Taylor allegedly paid a total of over $37,000 for human remains.

 

One of the defendants runs a store called Kat’s Creepy Creations in Peabody, Massachusetts. The FBI searched the store in March.

 

“If you’re in the market for human bones hit me up!” one post from the Kat’s Creepy Creations Instagram page read.

 

“Some crimes defy understanding,” U.S. Attorney Gerard Karam said in a statement. “The theft and trafficking of human remains strikes at the very essence of what makes us human. It is particularly egregious that so many of the victims here volunteered to allow their remains to be used to educate medical professionals and advance the interests of science and healing. For them and their families to be taken advantage of in the name of profit is appalling.”

 

Harvard Medical School was not complicit with the scheme, the U.S. attorney suggested, saying he appreciated their cooperation with the federal investigation.

 

Lodge was fired on May 6, Harvard Medical’s deans said.

 

“We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus — a community dedicated to healing and serving others. The reported incidents are a betrayal of HMS and, most importantly, each of the individuals who altruistically chose to will their bodies to HMS through the Anatomical Gift Program to advance medical education and research,” Harvard Medical’s dean of faculty and dean for medical education said in a joint statement.

 

“We are so very sorry for the pain this news will cause for our anatomical donors’ families and loved ones, and HMS pledges to engage with them during this deeply distressing time,” the statement said.

 

Lodge had worked for Harvard Medical School for 28 years before he was fired.

 

http://www.stationgossip.com/2023/06/human-brains-skin-from-harvard-morgue.html

Anonymous ID: 8fbef1 June 14, 2023, 7:12 p.m. No.19009661   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9670 >>9671 >>9792 >>9962 >>0076 >>0176

Democrat Witness Unable To Name One Study That Shows Benefits Of Sex-Change Treatments For Minors

 

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) charged a Democratic witness to cite evidence for her claim that sex change treatments were beneficial for children — which she was unable to do.

 

In a heated exchange posted to Twitter by The Post Millennial, Crenshaw repeatedly asked Dr. Meredithe McNamara, a professor at the Yale School of Medicine, who has written extensively in defense of “gender affirming care” and abortion, to provide peer-reviewed evidence that such treatments are beneficial to children. McNamara was unable to cite one study, falling back on the undefined “standards of care.”

 

“‘The standards of care.’ That’s not a journal. That’s not a study. That’s not an organization. It’s not an institution. You’re just saying words. Name one study,” Crenshaw chided.

 

Crenshaw cited reviews from the British Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the Endocrine Society, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, which all conclude there is little evidence that gender transition treatments are beneficial for minors.

 

He cited a review in the Journal of the Endocrine Society that found there is “low quality evidence for the idea that hormonal treatment improves quality of life, depression, and anxiety among adolescents.”

 

Democrat witness can’t name ONE study that shows how transgender procedures are beneficial for kids

 

pic.twitter.com/LwC3sdmdij

 

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 14, 2023

 

Dr. McNamara pushed back, saying, “It is very unscientific and flawed to pick a single study or a single statistic and discuss it in isolation. Medical experts are able to talk about all the evidence as a whole.”

 

“Totally agree,” Crenshaw said. The Texas Republican went on to cite the British Journal of Medicine, which looked at 61 systematic reviews and concluded that there was “great uncertainty” of the treatments.

 

 

Crenshaw pointed out that “the important part” was that because these findings were “systematic reviews,” they are by definition “all encompassing review[s] of all the data” and are not “cherry-picked” evidence, as the witness claimed.

 

Crenshaw then asked McNamara, “Do you not agree — just from an ethical standpoint — that you might want extremely strong evidence of the benefits?”

 

McNamara continued to push back, eventually citing “the standards of care” as evidence for why those treatments were beneficial. Crenshaw noted that the Yale doctor was unable to name a single study, journal, or review that supported the idea that such treatments were beneficial.

 

The debate occurred on the House Health Subcommittee in consideration of Crenshaw’s bill that would block federal funding for hospitals that provide gender transition treatments like cross-sex hormones and sex change surgeries.

 

Earlier in the hearing, Crenshaw attacked Democrats’ use of the term “standards of care,” saying that the schematic reviews he cited show that Democrats are using the term as “propaganda” and not as “an accurate representation of the data.” He further contended that “gender-affirming care” is founded in “pseudoscience and radical ideologies.”

 

Crenshaw also pointed to a May Washington Post poll that showed 68% of Americans disapproved of using puberty blockers on minors, arguing that such a contentious issue should not be funded by the federal government since most taxpayers disagree with it. He cited the Hyde Amendment — which bars taxpayer money funding abortion at the federal level — as a precedent for his legislation.

 

“Let’s not put taxpayer money toward something that is so obviously unproven and contentious. It’s really not that contentious — 70% of Americans oppose it, so the American people are pretty much on the side of not doing this, or at least pressing the pause button,” Crenshaw said. He also pointed out that the U.K.’s National Health Service limited access to such procedures by minors.

 

http://www.womensystems.com/2023/06/democrat-witness-unable-to-name-one.html

Anonymous ID: 8fbef1 June 14, 2023, 7:16 p.m. No.19009689   🗄️.is 🔗kun

August 23, 2018

 

Despite Comey Assurances, Vast Bulk of Weiner Laptop Emails Were Never Examined

 

When then-FBI Director James Comey announced he was closing the Hillary Clinton email investigation for a second time just days before the 2016 election, he certified to Congress that his agency had “reviewed all of the communications” discovered on a personal laptop used by Clinton’s closest aide, Huma Abedin, and her husband, Anthony Weiner.

 

At the time, many wondered how investigators managed over the course of one week to read the “hundreds of thousands” of emails residing on the machine, which had been a focus of a sex-crimes investigation of Weiner, a former Congressman.

 

Comey later told Congress that “thanks to the wizardry of our technology,” the FBI was able to eliminate the vast majority of messages as “duplicates” of emails they’d previously seen. Tireless agents, he claimed, then worked “night after night after night” to scrutinize the remaining material.

 

But virtually none of his account was true, a growing body of evidence reveals.

 

In fact, a technical glitch prevented FBI technicians from accurately comparing the new emails with the old emails. Only 3,077 of the 694,000 emails were directly reviewed for classified or incriminating information. Three FBI officials completed that work in a single 12-hour spurt the day before Comey again cleared Clinton of criminal charges.

 

“Most of the emails were never examined, even though they made up potentially 10 times the evidence” of what was reviewed in the original year-long case that Comey closed in July 2016, said a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation.

 

Yet even the "extremely narrow" search that was finally conducted, after more than a month of delay, uncovered more classified material sent and/or received by Clinton through her unauthorized basement server, the official said. Contradicting Comey’s testimony, this included highly sensitive information dealing with Israel and the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas. The former secretary of state, however, was never confronted with the sensitive new information and it was never analyzed for damage to national security.

 

Even though the unique classified material was improperly stored and transmitted on an unsecured device, the FBI did not refer the matter to U.S. intelligence agencies to determine if national security had been compromised, as required under a federally mandated “damage assessment” directive.

 

The newly discovered classified material “was never previously sent out to the relevant original classification authorities for security review,” the official, who spoke to RealClearInvestigations on the condition of anonymity, said.

 

Other key parts of the investigation remained open when the embattled director announced to Congress he was buttoning the case back up for good just ahead of Election Day.

 

One career FBI special agent involved in the case complained to New York colleagues that officials in Washington tried to “bury" the new trove of evidence, which he believed contained the full archive of Clinton's emails — including long-sought missing messages from her first months at the State Department.

 

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2018/08/22/despite_comey_assurance_vast_bulk_of_weiner_laptop_emails_never_examined.html

Anonymous ID: 8fbef1 June 14, 2023, 7:18 p.m. No.19009699   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9792 >>9927 >>9962 >>0076 >>0176

NY AG Announces Manhattan Case Against Trump Will Be ‘Adjourned’

 

On the heels of former President Donald Trump’s arraignment on federal charges related to his handling of classified documents on Tuesday in Miami, Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, announced an update on the case filed against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

 

Speaking to MSNBC’s Alex Wagneron on a panel at the Tribeca Film Festival, James said that the federal case will take precedence over both Bragg’s case, a case she has filed against The Trump Organization, and a potential case in Fulton County, Ga.

 

“In all likelihood, I believe that my case, as well as DA Bragg and the Georgia case, will, unfortunately, have to be adjourned pending the outcome of the federal case,” James said. “So it all depends upon the scheduling of this particular case. I know there’s gonna be a flood, a flurry of motions, motion to dismiss, discovery issues, all of that. So it really all depends. Obviously, all of us want to know what Judge [Aileen] Cannon is going to do and whether or not she’s going to delay this particular case.”

 

Democrats have framed Trump’s claims as false that the multiple investigations and now an indictment against him are politically motivated, but in January, a video of James resurfaced from her campaign for office during which she pledged specifically to target him and his multibillion-dollar businesses.

 

Eric Trump shared the video of James promising to take down Trump on his Instagram page.

 

“This is not the United States Legal System – this is third-world prosecutorial misconduct. Promising to target a political opponent and their family before even entering office – it’s hard to believe this is America. Letitia James may go down as the most politically corrupt Attorney General in New York history,” he said in the caption of the video.

 

“Stay Tuned… we have sued her for her unethical behavior and a judge will see every one of these videos, her viciousness and the pure malice of her actions and statements.

 

“More to come: Tomorrow may just be a video of James ad-libbing the song “I will survive” while interjecting hate speech about Donald Trump…. very common for the top law enforcement official in the State of New York,” the former president’s son said.

 

“This garbage erodes Americans’ confidence in the legal system and it will stop. Thank you to everyone who has sent videos of her – we seem to get new ones almost every day. #KeepThemComing,” he said.

 

https://conservativebrief.com/ag-james-74087/

Anonymous ID: 8fbef1 June 14, 2023, 7:20 p.m. No.19009713   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9731 >>9792 >>9962 >>0076 >>0176

Parents track 17,000 schools advising teachers how to hide gender transitions from parents

 

'We can barely keep up with our tracker because the numbers are so overwhelming'

 

Parents Defending Education (PDE), a parental rights organization, has identified thousands of school districts which have policies that advise employees on how to keep a student’s transgender status hidden from parents, according to the organization.

 

As of Tuesday, PDE’s tracker on its website shows that 1,000 schools districts, which includes 17,612 schools and more than 10 million students, have “Transgender/Gender Nonconforming Policies” in place which advise educators on how to keep a student’s transgender status hidden from parents, according to the organization. The transgender policies are found in school districts across 38 states, with California and New Jersey schools accounting for the most in the nation.

 

“We can barely keep up with our tracker because the numbers are so overwhelming, as parents constantly send us their schools’ policies to add to the list,” Erika Sanzi, director of outreach for PDE, told the Daily Caller News Foundation “We knew the numbers would rise, and we expect them to continue rising, because the policies are mostly driven by state and federal ‘guidance.’ These policies that deliberately deceive parents are pervasive and we must eradicate them.”

 

Listed on PDE’s tracker are some of the largest school districts in the country, including Los Angeles Unified School District and Chicago Public Schools. Chicago Public Schools’ “guidelines regarding the support of transgender and gender nonconforming students” directs staff to not share a student’s transgender status with others, and notes that children can go on overnight trips in accordance with their gender identity “consistently asserted at school.”

 

Seattle Public Schools, the largest school system in Washington state, has guidance in place which advises educators to use a student’s biological name and pronouns when speaking to parents if it is not clear whether or not the parents are aware of their child’s gender transition. The policy also notes that students have the right to use the bathroom on the basis of gender identity rather than biological sex.

 

Parents throughout the country are pushing back against school districts that are hiding their child’s gender transitions. In Maine, a mother filed a lawsuit against a school district that allegedly kept her daughter’s gender transition a secret and provided the 13-year-old girl with multiple chest binders. Two Colorado families sued a school district because educators allegedly convinced their daughters to join a “secret” club aiming to transition students and conceal the club’s activities from parents.

 

Chicago Public Schools and Seattle Public Schools did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

 

https://www.wnd.com/2023/06/parents-track-17000-schools-advising-teachers-hide-gender-transitions-parents/?utm_source=izooto

Anonymous ID: 8fbef1 June 14, 2023, 7:22 p.m. No.19009720   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9733 >>9737

$10M Magically Appeared In Biden’s 2017 Tax Return; House GOP Investigating

 

House Republicans are demanding increased transparency from President Joe Biden on his personal tax returns after an investigation found one of his corporate entities reported nearly $10 million in revenue without detailing the sources. The president’s critics believe the sudden influx of money may be related to allegations of bribery against the president.

 

CelticCapri Corp, an S-corporation for the president, was not listed on the president’s personal tax returns or campaign website, raising eyebrows as to why the 46th president would conceal such a large income source from the public. While it is common to not list corporate revenue on a personal income statement, politicians running for national office typically disclose all sources of income in an attempt to appear as transparent as possible.

 

According to Breitbart, the conservative Federalist Society took issue with a 2020 article by USA Today which attempted to hold water for the president by claiming he earned “$15.6 million … from speaking fees and book deals” between 2017 and 2019 and that “more than $10 million of that total income was profits from Biden’s memoir ‘Promise Me, Dad’ and $3 million in profits from Jill Biden’s book.” Following the citations within the USA Today article led readers to no details on the S-corporation, creating what the Federal Society referred to as a “smokescreen.”

 

House Republicans believe they may have found a bone to pick as they race to uncover the truth behind testimony from an FBI informant that President Biden took $5 million in bribes from a Ukrainian official to assist in the firing of another official and easing the path for his son Hunter Biden to conduct business operations in the country. Members of the Republican caucus told Breitbart that the latest lack of transparency from the president is deeply concerning.

 

“The President seems to find selling out our country funny. We don’t,” said Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). “If he’s serious about proving our allegations wrong he should release his and his family’s unredacted bank records and show the American people where all this money is coming from. The FBI can’t protect him forever.”

 

Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), a successful businessman in his own right, told Breitbart News Joe Biden should come clean about the money in lieu of the alleged pay-for-pay scheme.

 

“The fact that there are credible claims signaling that a foreign national bribed the President of the United States with cash in exchange for influence over U.S. policy decisions is appalling. The American people deserve to know who paid the Bidens and what exactly they were paid for,” he said.

 

“Now that we know there are recordings of conversations Joe Biden and his degenerate son had with a Burisma executive, it’s becoming more and more obvious how the indictment of President Trump is meant to be a distraction,” Crane added. “It would shock no one in this town if Joe Biden received millions of dollars from selling out the country in a bribery scheme and then hid that money in shady shell companies.”

 

https://trendingpoliticsnews.com/just-in-10m-magically-appeared-in-bidens-2017-tax-return-house-gop-investigating-mstef/

Anonymous ID: 8fbef1 June 14, 2023, 7:29 p.m. No.19009759   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9767 >>9784 >>9962 >>0076 >>0176

Joe Biden asserts jurisdiction over your children for purposes of pushing pornography, sexual "entertainment" and dangerous transgender extremist mutilation and other insanity.

 

https://twitter.com/TomFitton/status/1668985510394580992

Anonymous ID: 8fbef1 June 14, 2023, 7:33 p.m. No.19009786   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9799 >>9962 >>0076 >>0176

Death toll of doomsday starvation cult in Kenya reaches 300, and over 600 more are missing

 

Authorities said that the death toll of a starvation-suicide cult in Kenya had reached 300, and many more reported deaths are expected after local officials said more than 600 people are missing from the area.

 

Coastal regional commissioner Rhoda Onyancha said that 19 more bodies had been exhumed from mass graves in a property allegedly owned by pastor Paul Mackenzie in Kilifi County on the coast of Kenya, according to Africa News.

 

Mackenzie allegedly told his followers of the "Good News International Church" that they would meet Jesus Christ in heaven if they starved themselves.

 

Police began an investigation after receiving a tip that dozens of people were starving themselves on the order of a pastor. They rescued about 95 emaciated people from the property and arrested Mackenzie.

 

Some of the parishioners died on the way to a hospital.

 

Authorities said that 65 of the rescued parishioners began a hunger strike to protest their detention at a shelter. They were charged with attempting suicide and moved to a jail on Monday.

 

Relatives of Mackenzie's followers said that he had predicted the end of the world to come on August and then moved it to April 15.

 

A former deputy preacher of the religious sect said that followers were told to starve children first by leaving them in the sun and claimed that some were buried while they were still breathing.

 

Interior Minister Kindiki Kithure said that more mass graves were going to be exhumed by investigators.

 

On Wednesday, some of Mackenzie's associates reportedly collapsed during a hearing at a law court after refusing to eat for ten days. Mackenzie and his associates, along with his wife, are likely to face charges of mass murder.

 

Mackenzie has claimed that he is the target of hostile propaganda by his former colleagues.

 

Kenyan President William Ruto has compared Mackenzie to a terrorist.

 

https://www.theblaze.com/news/kenya-cult-starvation-mass-graves

Anonymous ID: 8fbef1 June 14, 2023, 7:35 p.m. No.19009806   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9819

Penn State professor Themis Matsoukas accused of performing sexual acts with his dog: ‘I do it to blow off steam’

 

A longtime and award-winning Penn State professor allegedly performed sexual acts with his dog in sickening displays that were captured on a state forest trail camera.

 

Themis Matsoukas, 64, was charged Tuesday after he was allegedly caught earlier this year naked from the waist down — except for socks and shoes — committing the perverted sex acts with his collie near bathrooms at Rothrock State Forest in Pennsylvania, according to reports.

 

Matsoukas, who is on leave from the university, was identified through a North Face backpack he was carrying from an incident in April and also May, according to a criminal complaint cited by the Centre Daily Times.

 

He allegedly tried to record himself performing the lewd acts with an electronic tablet, according to the trail cam footage, Fox 43 reported.

 

After Matsoukas was identified as the possible suspect, rangers from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources searched his home earlier this month and he went into a panic, the complaint reportedly states.

 

At one point, investigators told him they think he knew why they were searching his home, leading Matsoukas to reply repeatedly “I’m done, I’m dead,” the charging documents alleged.

 

He also begged rangers to shoot him, saying “I need to die” and additionally told investigators “I do it to blow off steam,” the documents reportedly stated.

 

The rangers were reportedly able to find the backpack and ski mask that was visible in April footage. They also saw a collie in his home that matched the dog in the video, according to docs.

 

Matsoukas was a chemical engineering professor dating back to 1991, receiving at least three teaching awards during his tenure, the Centre Daily Times reported.

 

“Themis Matsoukas has been relieved of his responsibilities and is on leave,” the school told the newspaper.

 

His attorney, Matthew McClenahen, didn’t have much to say Wednesday, telling the publication “it would be inappropriate to make any comment at this time.”

 

Matsoukas was charged with open lewdness, indecent exposure and sexual intercourse with an animal, misdemeanors, and summary charges of cruelty to animals and disorderly conduct.

 

He allegedly has been partaking in the lewd acts at the forest since 2014, according to authorities.

 

https://nypost.com/2023/06/14/penn-state-professor-themis-matsoukas-accused-of-performing-sexual-acts-with-his-dog/

Anonymous ID: 8fbef1 June 14, 2023, 8:48 p.m. No.19010144   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0176

Brian Houston prioritised Hillsong's reputation after father admitted sexual abuse of boy, court hears

 

From the moment Hillsong founder Brian Houston heard his father admit to sexually abusing a young boy, his "only focus" was to protect the church's reputation, a Sydney court has heard.

Key points:

 

Brian Houston was scrutinised in court for allegedly concealing his father's sexual abuse

The court heard the culture was to "protect the church" in the face of scandal

Mr Houston is the founder of Hillsong, and his father Frank died in 2004

 

Closing addresses are underway in the case in which Brian Houston, 70, has pleaded not guilty to concealing his father's abuse.

 

Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court has heard that in 1999, Frank Houston confessed when confronted to molesting a seven-year-old in the 1970s.

 

But Brian Houston has argued he had a reasonable excuse for not going to police — that he was respecting the wishes of victim Brett Sengstock, then aged in his 30s.

 

Prosecutor Gareth Harrison today told the court Brian Houston's motivation was to protect the reputation of the church and his father.

 

He said the accused made a conscious decision to elevate the matter to the church's national executive but not outside authorities.

 

The evidence demonstrated a culture within Hillsong that "when faced with a potential scandal, the culture was to protect the church," Mr Harrison said.

 

"That culture, in the Crown's submission, allowed the accused to place himself as the only conduit of information between the national executive and Mr Sengstock."

 

Mr Harrison also submitted an "entrenched reverence" to Frank Houston fostered protection of those in power and enforced a culture of silence.

 

"The Crown submits from the moment his father admitted abusing Brett Sengstock, his only focus was to protect the church and go nowhere near the police."

 

Brian Houston knew he could "control the narrative" by not telling the national executive the victim was contemplating going to authorities, the court was told, and "clearly" knew a criminal offence had been committed.

McDonald's napkin transaction

 

The court has previously heard Mr Sengstock signed a dirty napkin in a McDonald's car park for $10,000 after meeting with Frank Houston in the late 1990's.

 

In December, Mr Sengstock told the court that shortly after, Brian Houston told him he would be receiving the money — then a cheque for $10,000 turned up.

 

Mr Harrison said the church's culture dictated that things should be kept "in house" and argued nobody could fail to understand the payment was to buy Mr Sengstock's silence.

 

The prosecutor argued that Brian Houston "felt confident" the circumstances surrounding Mr Sengstock — including the payment of money — would prevent him from going to police or secular courts.

 

During his evidence last year, Brian Houston told the court he was left "stunned" and "speechless" when he first learned of the abuse.

 

He insisted Brett Sengstock was "very dogmatic" about not wanting police involved.

 

Frank Houston, who was stripped of his credentials as a pastor for the Assemblies of God, died in 2004.

 

The hearing, before Magistrate Gareth Christofi, continues.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-15/nsw-brian-houston-court-reputation-hillsong/102482718