A Texas evangelical pastor named Robert Morris has confessed to molesting a young girl in his past. He was also a spiritual adviser to Donald Trump.

Morris,  founding pastor of the Dallas-based Gateway megachurch, was accused by an Oklahoma woman of sexual abuse that began when she was 12 and continued until she was 16 in the 1980s, the Guardian has reported.

Morris confirmed the allegations to the Christian Post, a religious publication. “When I was in my early 20s, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behaviour with a young lady in a home where I was staying,”  he said in a statement to the Christian Post.

Although Morris said he confessed his behavior to the church back in 1987, Gateway church said in a statement to the Guardian on Tuesday that it “did not have 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 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. Even though it occurred many years before Gateway was established, as leaders of the church, we regret that we did not have the information that we now have,” the statement said.

“We are heartbroken and appalled by what has come to light over the past few days, and we express our deep sympathy to the victim and her family. For the sake of the victim, we are thankful this situation has been exposed. We know many have been affected by this, we understand that you are hurting, and we are very sorry. It is our prayer that, in time, healing for all those affected can occur,” the church’s statemenet added.

Morris’s accuser told the Christian Post that while she had forgiven the pastor for the sexual abuse, she did not believe he should have returned to ministry.

Despite his confession, Morris will remain a primary speaker at the church on weekends, with his son, James Morris, set to take over his senior pastor duties next year.

Morris was never criminally charged, and by the time his accuser sought legal action, she was advised that the statute of limitations for both criminal and civil cases had likely expired.