Gateway Church Founder Robert Morris Pleads Guilty in Child Sex Abuse Case

Gateway Church founder Robert Morris has pleaded guilty to multiple child sex abuse charges in Oklahoma.

Officers led the 64-year-old preacher away in handcuffs on Thursday, Oct. 2, after he accepted a plea deal before Judge Cindy Pickerill in Osage County District Court for five felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, NBC News reported.

Cindy Clemishire, now 55, said she was 12 years old when the sexual abuse started.

Morris, a former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, received a 10-year sentence. However, only six months will be served in jail, with the remainder of his time to be on probation in Texas as part of his plea arrangement, per a statement provided to PEOPLE by Morris’s attorney, Bill Mateja.

In an email to PEOPLE, Gateway Church declined to comment on Morris’s conviction.

“While he believes that he long since accepted responsibility in the eyes of God and that Gateway Church was a manifestation of that acceptance, he readily accepted responsibility in the eyes of the law,” Mateja said in a statement provided to PEOPLE.

Morris must also register as a sex offender and was ordered to pay his costs of incarceration, including any medical expenses, and restitution to the victim.

Clemishire, who was present in court, alleged the abuse occurred in the 1980s while Morris was a traveling evangelist staying in Hominy, Okla., with her family, CNN reported, citing a statement by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond.

It reportedly began in 1982 and went on for four years.

In July 2024, NBC News reported that Morris and his attorney previously placed blame on Clemishire for the sexual abuse.

“It was your client who initiated inappropriate behavior by coming into my client’s bedroom and getting in bed with him, which my client should not have allowed to happen,” lawyer J. Shelby Sharpe reportedly wrote in correspondence obtained by the outlet, referring to a 12-year-old Clemishire.

Morris founded Gateway Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Southlake in 2000, the megachurch’s website previously said. It has since removed mention of Morris.

The church now has several locations across the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as well as in Wyoming and congregations in multiple prisons.

Clemishire spoke to the courtroom on Thursday and said in a statement that “justice has finally been served, and the man who manipulated, groomed and abused me as a 12-year-old innocent girl is finally going to be behind bars,” per CNN.

“My hope is that many victims hear my story, and it can help lift their shame and allow them to speak up,” she said. “I hope that laws continue to change and new ones are written so children and victims’ rights are better protected. I hope that people understand the only way to stop child sexual abuse is to speak up when it happens or is suspected.”

Morris was indicted by an Oklahoma grand jury on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child in March.

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“There can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children,” Drummond said in March. “This case is all the more despicable because the alleged perpetrator was a pastor who exploited his position. The victim in this case has waited far too many years for justice to be done.”