The founder of a Texas megachurch has resigned in the wake of allegations he sexually abused a girl during the 1980s, starting when she was 12, according to a report Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Gateway Church said pastor Robert Morris, 63, didn't provide church elders with "all the facts of the inappropriate relationship between Morris and the victim, including her age at the time and the length of the abuse," the Dallas Morning News said.
"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," spokesperson Lawrence Swicegood said in a prepared statement.
Morris hasn't responded to repeated requests for comment, the Dallas Morning News said.
Morris, who has ties to former President Donald Trump, on Saturday admitted engaging in "inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady" but didn't acknowledge her age.
His statement to the Christian Post website came after Christine Clemishire, who's in her 50s, told the Wartburg Watch website that Morris first molested her on Christmas night 1982 and that the abuse continued intermittently until March 1987.
Clemishire told a Dallas TV station that she'd hired lawyer Basyle "Boz" Tchividjian, a grandson of the late televangelist Billy Graham, who specializes in representing victims of abuse by church leaders.
Tchividjian said statutes of limitations would likely prevent criminal charges or civil litigation, WFAA reported.
