A Pentecostal pastor may have overlooked suspicions about his paedophile son-in-law because of their family relationship, a royal commission has heard.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told church members raised concerns about a relationship between youth pastor Jonathan Baldwin and a teenage boy.
The then senior pastor of the Queensland church, Ian Lehmann, told the commission he may have downplayed the claims because Baldwin was dating his daughter.
"He was in a relationship with my daughter and that would have blindsided me to a degree, because I would never have allowed my daughter to have a relationship with somebody if I thought he was engaging in alternate sexual activity," he said.
The commission has heard Baldwin started abusing the then 13-year-old boy in 2004 and the molestation continued until 2006, after Baldwin married Mr Lehmann's daughter.
Baldwin was convicted over the offences in 2009 and sentenced to eight years jail, but has since been released.
Mr Lehmann told the commission he recalled being made aware of the "intensity" of the relationship between Baldwin and his victim, given the pseudonym ALA.
However, he said he could not remember being told of more serious allegations, including that ALA was found semi-naked in an office with Baldwin.
He told the commission that he was on a heavy dose of morphine for hip pain at the time concerns were raised.
ALA's father, given the pseudonym ALD, earlier accused Australian Christian Churches of trying to protect its assets rather than the victim.
"The church instead worked to minimise potential losses in case the victim should seek compensation," he said.
"Insurance was checked, consideration given to possibly shifting assets to other entities."
In a message read out to the royal commission, ALA said the abuse continued to plague him.
"The pain, thoughts and considerable suffering haunt me every day," he wrote.
"People say it gets easier with time. No. That's a lie. It never goes away and it doesn't get easier with time."
His father told the commission the family heard nothing from ACC, the umbrella body for the Pentecostal movement, for years after the abuse.
Frustrated by the lack of response from the ACC, the man sent an email entitled, "A cry from a father's heart for his son", to a large number of people in 2011.
"Jesus said, 'Suffer the little ones to come unto me'," he wrote. "We brought our little ones to him and now our youngest suffers and suffers and suffers."
The ACC state clerk emailed the following day: "We are not sure if this is a legitimate email or spam".
It was not until 2012 that a senior ACC staff member contacted the family, the commission heard.
The public hearing is examining the response of Australian Christian Churches and affiliated Pentecostal churches to allegations of child sexual abuse.
The hearing before Justice Jennifer Coate✓ continues.
