A grand jury in Oklahoma has indicted Texas megachurch founder Robert Morris, accusing him in five felony counts of lewd acts with a girl beginning when she was 12 years old in the 1980s.

Robert Morris, who was once a spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, resigned as senior pastor of Gateway Church in June after admitting to “inappropriate sexual behavior” in the 1980s.

His accuser has said she was 12 when Morris first sexually abused her on Christmas in 1982 during a visit to her home in Hominy, Oklahoma. He was then 21.

“After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child,” Cindy Clemishire said after the indictment was made public. “Now it is time for the legal system to hold him accountable.”

The state’s multicounty grand jury returned the indictment Wednesday after hearing two days of testimony in secret sessions. Grand jurors charged Morris, now 63, with five counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child.

Grand jurors alleged the offenses started when the girl was 12 and continued while she was 13 and 14.

The former pastor’s Oklahoma attorney, Mack Martin, declined comment.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond, whose assistants advise the grand jury, said “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 also said. “The victim in this case has waited far too many years for justice to be done.”

His assistants said time restrictions on prosecuting sex crimes against children do not apply because Morris did not live in Oklahoma at any time.

More: Gateway Church removes elders, aiding criminal investigation: ‘We denounce sexual abuse’

Morris admitted to wrongdoing after his accuser spoke out by name to the The Wartburg Watch, a blog about sexual abuse within the church. In statements to the media last year, Morris said he was involved in his early 20s 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. This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years. In March of 1987, this situation was brought to light, and it was confessed and repented of.”

Clemishire, now 55, told USA TODAY last year that she came forward publicly to encourage others who may be victims to tell their stories.

“I’ve always just trusted that God’s timing would take it wherever it needed to go,” she said about Morris. “Why hide?”

Clemishire told the blog that she and her family met Morris at a youth revival in Tulsa, when he was 20 and she was 11. She described him as a traveling evangelist.

She said he was invited to do a youth revival in Hominy and after that he would regularly preach at their church on Sundays. She said he often stayed at her family’s home, sometimes with his wife and son.

“Cindy viewed them as safe and friendly,” the blog reported. “Their families would often go on trips with each other.”

She said he first sexually abused her on Christmas after asking her to come to his room. She said he warned her afterward: “Never tell anyone about this because it will ruin everything.”

“Robert Morris repeated this behavior until March 1987,” the blog reported. “This would happen in Texas and Oklahoma. … Things changed when she was sixteen. He would take her out in his car and attempt to have sexual intercourse.”

Morris was then a pastor at Shady Grove Church in Texas. He stepped away from the ministry in 1987 for two years after Clemishire told a close friend and her parents what happened, according to the blog.

Morris in 2000 founded Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, a suburb of Dallas and Fort Worth. It would grow to multiple sites. The church said in a statement Wednesday its members continue to pray for Clemishire and “for all of those impacted by this terrible situation.”

Morris had a television program that aired in over 190 countries and his radio program aired in more than 6,800 cities, according to his biography on the Gateway Church website. His YouTube page, which is no longer online, had 80,000 subscribers and included videos with titles like “Freedom Through Forgiveness” and “Did You Know You’re Made Perfect By God’s Grace?”

Morris was on Trump’s spiritual advisory board during the 2016 campaign and during the first term of his presidency. He did not have a role in the 2024 reelection effort, Trump’s campaign said last year.

The indictment was filed for prosecution Thursday in Osage County District Court. Morris is expected to turn himself in there Monday and surrender his passport. His bond was set at $50,000.

Grand jurors alleged in the indictment that he touched her “in a lewd or lascivious manner” while she was 12, the first time on Christmas 1982. They alleged he lewdly looked at her private parts two days later after removing her clothing.

Grand jurors also alleged he lewdly touched her further while she was 13 and 14. He is accused in the final count of rubbing against her leg over his clothes after removing hers while they were in a vehicle parked on an Osage County road.

He faces up to 100 years in prison if convicted of all five counts.