FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -
Former actuality TV star Josh Duggar was sentenced Wednesday to about 12 1/2 years in jail after he was convicted of receiving youngster pornography.
Duggar was additionally convicted of possessing youngster pornography in December, however U.S. District Choose Timothy Brooks dismissed that conviction after ruling that, below federal legislation, it was an included offense within the receiving youngster pornography rely.
Prosecutors had requested U.S. District Choose Timothy Brooks to provide the utmost time period of 20 years to Duggar, whose giant household was the main focus of TLC's “19 Youngsters and Counting.” They argued in a pre-sentencing court docket submitting that Duggar has a “deep-seated, pervasive and violent sexual curiosity in youngsters.”
The choose sentenced Duggar to 12 years and 7 months in jail, at some point after denying a protection movement to overturn the responsible verdict on grounds of inadequate proof or to order a brand new trial.
U.S. Lawyer David Clay Fowlkes mentioned he was happy with the sentence.
“Whereas this isn't the sentence we requested for, this can be a prolonged sentence,” Fowlkes mentioned exterior the courthouse.
Duggar, whose attorneys sought a five-year sentence, maintains his innocence. Protection legal professional Justin Gelfand mentioned he's grateful Brooks declined to impose the complete 20-year sentence requested by prosecutors.
“We'll instantly file the discover of enchantment throughout the subsequent 14 days,” Gelfand mentioned.
Duggar was arrested in April 2021 after a Little Rock police detective discovered youngster porn recordsdata 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 automotive dealership Duggar owned.
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 good friend however concluded that the statute of limitations on any attainable expenses had expired.
Duggar's dad and mom mentioned he had confessed to the fondling and apologized. After the allegations resurfaced in 2015, Duggar apologized publicly for unspecified habits 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.
In searching for a 20-year sentence, prosecutors cited the graphic photographs - and the ages of the youngsters concerned - in addition to court docket testimony concerning 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 seen 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 court docket submitting mentioned.
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, based on consultants.
“There may be merely no indication that Duggar will ever take the steps obligatory to alter this sample of habits and deal with his predilection for minor females,” prosecutors wrote.
“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.”
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