Chilling email sent by Texas megachurch pastor Robert Morris to sexual abuse accuser 20 years before his shocking confession

According to a report, the pastor of a Texas megachurch, Robert Morris, sent a harrowing email to the person who accused him of sexual abuse 20 years before his shocking confession.

Morris, 62, founder and pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake – one of the largest megachurches in the country – faced allegations from former family friend Cindy Clemishire, now 54, who said he sexually abused her in the 1980s when she was 12.

On Tuesday, Morris resigned from the megachurch after admitting to abusing Clemishire. Clemishire made her allegations public in a blog post on The Wartburg Watch, a website dedicated to exposing abuse in churches.

Recently released emails obtained by NBC News claim to reveal shocking interactions between the disgraced pastor and Clemishire in 2005.

“23 years after you began to destroy my life, I am still struggling with the pain and damage you caused,” Clemishire, then 35, is said to have written to Morris. “I want some sort of reparation. Pray for it and call me.”

Two weeks later, Morris, Donald Trump’s former spiritual adviser, reportedly told Clemishire that she was dear to him and his wife Debbie Morris.

“Debbie and I are truly worried about you and sincerely wish you God’s best,” he told Clemishire.

He then allegedly told her that he had previously confessed his sins to Clemishire’s father and that he felt that by doing so he had gained forgiveness for her and her family.

“My lawyer points out that if I pay you money under threat of exposure, you could be prosecuted, and Debbie and I do not want that,” Morris was quoted as saying in response.

“If you need further information, have your lawyer contact mine.”

The two families – including Morris’ wife and son – grew closer, and Clemishire claimed Morris’s abuse began when he stayed overnight at her family’s Tulsa home during Christmas 1982.

She describes a scene in which Morris asked her to come into his room and talk to him and asked her to lie on his bed.

Morris began touching her inappropriately. Clemishire claimed he first touched her stomach, then her breasts, and finally under her pants.

“I remember exactly what I was wearing and how the pajamas felt. They were light pink and consisted of a top with bloomers. I wore underwear and bloomers and the top and a robe that buttoned up over it,” she said.

Clemishire added that after the alleged abuse, Morris “told me I couldn’t tell anyone because it would ruin everything.”

She said he continued to isolate and abuse her for the next four and a half years before she finally spoke about it, first to a family friend and then to her parents.

Clemishire’s father demanded that Morris be removed from the ministry, and she claimed that he did so for two years to undergo “reinstatement.” He returned to preaching in 1989.

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In another email to Morris, Clemishire reportedly said, “Men who commit more than 100 counts of child abuse go to prison.”

“Men who pastor churches where there are over 100 cases of child abuse have to go to prison and pay restitution. They had to do neither.”

According to the alleged emails, Tom Lane, a former Gateway elder, knew that Clemishire had contacted Morris to seek compensation. It is unclear whether he knew that she was accusing the former pastor of sexually abusing children.

On Friday, Lane, who has since left the church, told NBC News that he “did not fully understand the severity and details of the sexual abuse she experienced, nor did I know that she was 12 years old when the abuse began.”

Richard Harmer, a spokesman for Lane, said he believes Clemishire is under 18 but still old enough to consent to a sexual relationship. In the state of Oklahoma, where the abuse allegedly occurred, the age of consent is 16.

In April 2005, Lane contacted Clemishire on Morris’ behalf, but wanted to speak directly with the former pastor.

Lane explained to her that Morris had been “completely open with the elders of Gateway Church about his past and particularly about his indiscretions toward you.”

He added that while Morris and his wife treated her with “compassion and caring,” they “did not provide her with the healing she was seeking.”

“The ‘blessed life’ that Robert writes about in his book and that you refer to in your email is not a life of perfection but one of submission and obedience to God, something he has tried hard to live for more than twenty years, through both periods of success and failure,” Lane wrote to Clemishire.

“Robert and Debbie have done what they can to help you heal. Our church believes in healing, forgiveness and restoration for all people. We want to help you find that healing for your life.”

Just five months after Lane wrote to Clemishire, she reportedly sent a message directly to Morris.

“I’m giving you one last chance to call me. You really have no idea how devastating it will be if you don’t. I don’t want Tom or anyone else to contact me. This is your problem, not his,” she said.

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Morris then asked Clemishire what she wanted from him, but she insisted that he call her on the phone to discuss everything else.

“I have suffered from the emotional damage you have inflicted on me for most of my life. If you want to know what I want, call me,” she replied.

Although he never called her, Clemishire said Morris’s attorney contacted her to arrange a meeting with Morris, but that never happened either.

In a final message to her, Morris said: “They see the blessings God has poured out on my life and conclude that it is because I have hidden my past.’

“That’s not how God works. He won’t be mocked by deception.”

“I am deeply saddened by the pain Cindy Clemishire has endured and by the recent revelations regarding Pastor Robert Morris,” Lane said in a recent statement.

“I extend my deepest condolences to Cindy and pray that her suffering is fully acknowledged and honored.”

The Gateway Church’s Board of Elders issued a statement Tuesday confirming acceptance of Morris’ resignation. Morris has not made a public statement.

The church had previously supported Morris, saying he had been “open and honest about a moral failing he committed over 35 years ago.” However, in its statement, it now describes the behavior as unacceptable after learning the victim’s age.

Gateway elders admitted they knew about Morris’ relationship with a “young lady” when he was in his twenties.

“The elders previously believed that Morris’ extramarital relationship, which he had often discussed during his tenure, was with ‘a young lady’ and not the abuse of a 12-year-old child,” church leaders said in a statement.

This week, the Council of Elders announced that it had hired a law firm to investigate. DailyMail.com has contacted the Gateway Church and Morris for comment.

Clemishire has hired Boz Tchividjian to represent her in a new potential lawsuit, according to WFAA. Tchividjian is the grandson of evangelist Billy Graham.

“It seems they would rather just accept his vague account than seek the truth about a sexual offense against a minor,” Tchividjian said.

“The leaders at Gateway had a responsibility to find out what had happened and not to blindly accept his words.”

Morris was never charged and the statute of limitations for such cases has long since expired.