In 1999, Brian Houston's dad William confessed to sexually abusing a boy in New Zealand 30 years before.
Brian was leading the Assemblies of God in Australia group of churches (now the Australian Christian Churches) when he confronted his late father and dismissed him from ministerial and preaching positions.
In 2014, an Australian royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse criticised the church leader for failing to report the abuse to police.
Now, in an interview with Australian TV's Inside Story, he's explained his reasons.
"Rightly or wrongly I genuinely believed that I would be pre-empting the victim if I were to just call the police at that point.
"I had to confront my own father - my hero - we didn't cover it up.
"We did tell people straight away. We did take his credentials away. He never did preach again and we did oversee and ensure that he was never put in a position to be close to kids to be able to do that again.
"What we didn't do is report it to the police.
"When he (the victim) came forward he was 36 or 37 years old. And he was very adamant he didn't want to involve the police. He didn't want the church authorities involved, or the police authorities involved.
"And so he was brittle and I think because of that I didn't see the police as an option."
Mr Houston, 61, has also been speaking about the day he confronted his dad.
"The dad that I knew, right up to really his dying day, was a totally different person than what now the world knows was an evil side of him.
"I was never at any time in any way exposed to that, so it's still hard to reconcile.
"At first I felt very sad and very disappointed, and obviously I felt terribly sad for the victim, because there's no doubt about it, my father's violated him and done irreparable damage to his life.
"I felt it was my moral duty to face up to it with my own father. Hopefully anyone who is slightly human can think about that."
He also spoke about how the trauma had left him dependent on sleeping pills and battling depression.
"He was a paedophile. My dad was a paedophile. I can say it now. I have sort of come to grips with it now. But I do sort of find myself carrying the can for stuff that had nothing to do with me.
"This was not my crime. I didn't do this. I hate paedophilia. And I mean it. I hate paedophilia with a passion."
