A federal jury in Arkansas on Thursday convicted former reality TV star Josh Duggar of downloading and possessing child pornography. The jury in Fayetteville found the 33-year-old Duggar guilty on one count each of receiving and possessing child pornography. He faces up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for each count when he’s sentenced at a later date.
Duggar and his family starred on TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” until the network canceled the show in 2015, following revelations that he had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter. Authorities began investigating the abuse in 2006 after receiving a tip from a family friend but concluded that the statute of limitations on any possible charges had expired. At that time, Duggar’s parents said he had confessed and apologized; and Josh Duggar himself later apologized for a pornography addiction and for cheating on his wife.
Federal authorities said they began investigating Duggar on the child pornography charges after a Little Rock police detective found child porn files were being shared by a computer traced to Duggar. A federal agent testified in May that images depicting the sexual abuse of children, including toddlers, were downloaded in 2019 onto a computer at a car dealership Duggar owned. Duggar’s attorney argued that someone else downloaded or uploaded the images onto Duggar’s computer.
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