Former reality TV star Josh Duggar sentenced to 12 years in child porn case

Former actuality TV star Josh Duggar was sentenced Wednesday to about 12 and a half years in jail after he was convicted final December of receiving and possessing youngster pornography.

Prosecutors had requested U.S. District Choose Timothy Brooks to offer the utmost time period of 20 years to Duggar, whose giant household was the main target of TLC’s 19 Youngsters and Counting. They argued in a pre-sentencing courtroom submitting that Duggar has a “deep-seated, pervasive and violent sexual curiosity in youngsters.”

Arkansas TV station KNWA reported that the decide sentenced Duggar, 34, to 151 months in jail.

Duggar, whose attorneys sought a five-year sentence, maintains his innocence and has stated he’ll enchantment.

Photographs traced to Duggar’s laptop 

Duggar was arrested in April 2021 after a Little Rock, Ark., police detective discovered youngster porn information had been being shared by a pc traced to Duggar. Investigators testified that photographs depicting the sexual abuse of youngsters, together with toddlers, had been downloaded in 2019 onto a pc at a automobile dealership Duggar owned.

A Fayetteville, Ark., jury discovered Duggar responsible final December. 

TLC cancelled 19 Youngsters and Counting in 2015 following allegations that Duggar had molested 4 of his sisters and a babysitter years earlier. Authorities started investigating the abuse in 2006 after receiving a tip from a household buddy however concluded that the statute of limitations on any doable fees had expired.

Duggar’s dad and mom stated he had confessed to the fondling and apologized. After the allegations resurfaced in 2015, Duggar apologized publicly for unspecified behaviour and resigned as a lobbyist for the Household Analysis Council, a conservative Christian group.

Months later, he publicly apologized for dishonest on his spouse and a pornography habit, for which he then sought remedy.

Prosecutors sought 20-year sentence

In searching for a 20-year sentence, prosecutors cited the graphic photographs — and the ages of the youngsters concerned — in addition to courtroom testimony in regards to the alleged abuse of Duggar’s sisters.

Duggar’s previous behaviour “supplies an alarming window into the extent of his sexual curiosity in youngsters that the Court docket ought to contemplate at sentencing,” federal prosecutors wrote of their sentencing memorandum.

“This previous conduct, when considered alongside the conduct for which he has been convicted, makes clear that Duggar has a deep-seated, pervasive, and violent sexual curiosity in youngsters, and a willingness to behave on that curiosity,” the courtroom submitting stated.

Prosecutors additionally famous that Duggar’s laptop had been partitioned to evade accountability software program that had been put in to report back to his spouse exercise akin to porn searches, in line with consultants.

“There’s merely no indication that Duggar will ever take the steps crucial to vary this sample of behaviour and handle his predilection for minor females,” prosecutors wrote.

Duggar has maintained that he is harmless and that he intends to enchantment, his attorneys wrote of their sentencing memorandum.

“Duggar accepts that he’s earlier than this Court docket for sentencing and that this Court docket should impose a penalty,” his attorneys wrote. “That’s justice. However Duggar additionally appeals to this Court docket’s discretion to mood that justice with mercy.”