Oct. 3 (UPI) — The founder and former pastor of a Texas megachurch has pleaded guilty to charges of sexually abusing a 12-year-old in the 1980s.

Robert Preston Morris, 64, entered his guilty plea to five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child in court on Thursday before Osage County District Special Judge Cindy Pickerill.

“Today, 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,” Morris’ victim, Cindy Clemishire, who is now an adult, said in a statement in response to the announcement.

Under the plea deal, Morris, the former senior pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, received a 10-year suspended sentence with the first six months to be served in the Osage County Jail.

Jail records show he was booked into the jail at 3:39 p.m. local time Thursday.

Morris resigned from his church, which is among the largest in the United States, in the summer of 2024, amid fallout after Clemishire accused him of abusing her decades earlier.

Morris was indicted in March.

The court document states he started abusing Clemishire when she was 12 on Christmas 1982 while he was staying at the home of her family in Hominy while he worked as a traveling evangelist.

The abuse continued until at least Jan. 24, 1985, when Clemishire, referred to in the indictment as C.C., was 15 years old.

The indictment stats two of the counts filed against him were for having “intentionally and designedly” touched Clemishire’s body, including “the breast and vaginal area.”

One count was for looking upon his victim’s body after removing her clothing, another for molesting her while in a parked car and the fifth for abusing her by rubbing himself against her naked body, again while in a parked car.

As part of the plea deal, Morris is required to register as a sex offender and be supervised by Texas authorities. He has also been ordered to pay his costs of incarceration as well as restitution to the victim.

“Today is a new beginning for me, my family and friends who have been by my side through this horrendous journey,” Clemishire said, adding she hopes her story will remove the shame other abuse victims feel and allow them to speak up.

“I leave this courtroom today not as a victim but a survivor.”

Morris was a former spiritual advisor to President Donald Trump and had served on his evangelical advisory board during his first term in the White House.

In 2020, Morris participated with Trump in a “Roundtable on Transition to Greatness” event at his Gateway Church in Dallas, Texas.