Robert Morris, the founder of the Texas megachurch Gateway Church in Southlake, has been charged with five criminal counts involving a child.
The news was shared by the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office on Wednesday, noting that Morris, 63, was charged with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child almost a year after he resigned as senior pastor after he admitted to having “inappropriate sexual behavior” in the 1980s.
It’s been alleged that the abuse began in December 1982, when Morris was visiting the Hominy, Oklahoma, home of the victim, who prosecutors say was 12 at the time. Morris was 21.
The attorney general’s office alleged that the abuse continued for four years.
Morris was first accused of the criminal acts by Cindy Clemishire, who said she was sexually abused by the pastor as a child.
Last June, after the accusations were made, Morris said in a statement to The Christian Post that he engaged in “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying.”
“It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong,” he said.
Three days later, he resigned as senior pastor.
The church’s Board of Elders has commented on the situation, saying it was not aware of any alleged abuse with a child.
“The elders’ prior understanding was that Morris’s extramarital relationship, which he had discussed many times throughout his ministry, was with ‘a young lady’ and not abuse of a 12-year-old child,” the board said at the time.
Morris’s church in Southlake, which is in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is one of the largest megachurches in the U.S.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is leading the case against Morris, saying in a statement, “There can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children.”
“This case is all the more despicable because the alleged perpetrator was a pastor who exploited his position,” Drummond said. “The victim in this case has waited far too many years for justice to be done.”
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