Robert Morris, the founder of a Texas megachurch with one of the nation’s largest congregations, pleaded guilty Thursday to sexually abusing a girl in the 1980s, according to court documents.

According to prosecutors, Morris, 64, began abusing Cindy Clemishire, who was 12 at the time, in 1982. He used his hands and body to touch her private parts on multiple occasions, prosecutors said, and the abuse lasted until she was 14.

Clemishire told The Dallas Morning News in 2024 that he had begun abusing her when her family invited him to stay in their Oklahoma home over Christmas in 1982.

Morris resigned from his role as the senior pastor of Gateway Church, based in Dallas, last year after Clemishire publicly accused him of abuse. In the interview with the Morning News, Clemishire said that i

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