Through Related Press
FAYETTEVILLE: Former fact TV big name Josh Duggar was once sentenced Wednesday to about 12 1/2 years in jail after he was once convicted of receiving kid pornography.
Duggar was once additionally convicted of possessing kid pornography in December, however US District Pass judgement on Timothy Brooks brushed aside that conviction after ruling that, below federal regulation, it was once an integrated offense within the receiving kid pornography rely.
Prosecutors had requested US District Pass judgement on Timothy Brooks to offer the utmost time period of twenty years to Duggar, whose huge circle of relatives was once the focal point of TLC’s “19 Children and Counting.” They argued in a pre-sentencing court docket submitting that Duggar has a “deep-seated, pervasive and violent sexual passion in kids.”
The pass judgement on sentenced Duggar to twelve years and 7 months in jail, sooner or later after denying a protection movement to overturn the responsible verdict on grounds of inadequate proof or to reserve a brand new trial.
US Legal professional David Clay Fowlkes stated he was once proud of the sentence. “Whilst this isn’t the sentence we requested for, it is a long sentence,” Fowlkes stated out of doors the courthouse.
Duggar, whose attorneys sought a five-year sentence, maintains his innocence. Protection legal professional Justin Gelfand stated he’s thankful Brooks declined to impose the whole 20-year sentence asked through prosecutors. “We’ll in an instant record the awareness of attraction inside the subsequent 14 days,” Gelfand stated.
Duggar was once arrested in April 2021 after a Little Rock police detective discovered kid porn information had been being shared through a pc traced to Duggar. Investigators testified that pictures depicting the sexual abuse of youngsters, together with little toddlers, had been downloaded in 2019 onto a pc at a automobile dealership Duggar owned.
TLC canceled “19 Children and Counting” in 2015 following allegations that Duggar had molested 4 of his sisters and a babysitter years previous. Government started investigating the abuse in 2006 after receiving a tip from a circle of relatives buddy however concluded that the statute of boundaries on any imaginable fees had expired.
Duggar’s folks stated he had confessed to the fondling and apologized. After the allegations resurfaced in 2015, Duggar apologized publicly for unspecified conduct and resigned as a lobbyist for the Circle of relatives Analysis Council, a conservative Christian staff.
Months later, he publicly apologized for dishonest on his spouse and for pornography habit, for which he then sought remedy. In looking for a 20-year sentence, prosecutors cited the graphic pictures — and the ages of the kids concerned — in addition to court docket testimony concerning the alleged abuse of Duggar’s sisters.
Duggar’s previous conduct “supplies an alarming window into the level of his sexual passion in kids that the Courtroom will have to imagine at sentencing,” federal prosecutors wrote of their sentencing memorandum.
“This previous behavior, when seen along the behavior for which he has been convicted, makes transparent that Duggar has a deep-seated, pervasive, and violent sexual passion in kids, and a willingness to behave on that passion,” the court docket submitting stated.
Prosecutors additionally famous that Duggar’s pc have been partitioned to evade duty device that have been put in to report back to his spouse task reminiscent of porn searches, in line with mavens.
“There’s merely no indication that Duggar will ever take the stairs important to modify this trend of conduct and cope with his predilection for minor ladies,” prosecutors wrote.
“Duggar accepts that he’s earlier than this Courtroom for sentencing and that this Courtroom will have to impose a penalty,” his legal professionals wrote. “This is justice. However Duggar additionally appeals to this Courtroom’s discretion to mood that justice with mercy.”