JOIN US MAY 20-21 FOR RESTORE CONFERENCE

Mary
DeMuth

Scot
McKnight

Screenshot 2023-01-13 at 1.50.18 PM

Naghmeh
Panahi

Reporting the Truth.
Restoring the Church.

Reality TV’s Josh Duggar Convicted of Child Porn Possession

By Associated Press
Josh Duggar sentenced trial child porn
Former reality TV star and Christian activist Josh Duggar was sentenced Wednesday to 12 ½ years in a federal prison for downloading and possessing child pornography. (Photo courtesy of Washington County Detention Center)

A federal jury in Arkansas on Thursday convicted former reality TV star Josh Duggar of downloading and possessing child pornography.

The jury in Fayetteville, about 140 miles northwest of Little Rock, 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 large Arkansas 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.

Duggar’s parents said he had confessed to the fondling and apologized. Duggar later apologized for a pornography addiction and for cheating on his wife.

The judge in the child porn case ruled that jurors could hear testimony about how in 2003, Duggar admitted to molesting four girls. A family friend testified that Duggar told her about the abuse.

Your tax-deductible gift helps our journalists report the truth and hold Christian leaders and organizations accountable. Give a gift of $30 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you will receive a copy of “Even If He Doesn’t: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense” by Kristen LaValley. To donate, click here.

Federal authorities said they began investigating 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. But the jury wasn’t swayed.

Duggar’s father Jim Bob Duggar, who also starred on the reality show, is running in a special election for a vacant state Senate seat in northwestern Arkansas. He previously served in the Arkansas House.

Related podcast: Julie Roys interviews a leading expert on “Understanding the Duggar Cult.” 

SHARE THIS:

GET EMAIL UPDATES!

Keep in touch with Julie and get updates in your inbox!

Don’t worry we won’t spam you.

More to explore
discussion

6 Responses

  1. Given this judgement and conviction, justice will take its course. Given that, space is available to reflect on how and why what happened to lead to conviction, played out as it has.
    We have factors that drove behaviour and events. We have factors that failed to head of behaviours, events and escalation.
    It would be good if we all put our best motivation and skill-set to the task of understanding.
    In some sense we do here encounter human harming so great, that we risk blinding ourselves with such a sense of evil; that we then fail to press though to really engage and discern and understand that evil.
    In some manner strong Christians may have what it takes to contemplate evil, and not be overcome by it; Such that what they then have to say, is worth listening to.
    I love the idea that every new born child is potentially as Jesus; is potentially a redeemer of what goes wrong in human occurrence. Where Josh’s violation of such children and such potential, is a transgression beyond measure; is a momentary death-blow to the Christian project and imperative. While, at the same time, we need to come to a full understanding of Josh the transgressor.

      1. They censored my comment.

        My quote was “we need to come to a full understanding of the transgressor.”

        Meaning we are all transgressors.

  2. Now for us to see a reckoning of all the “Christians” and “conservatives” in our culture who pushed the underlying cult that led to this monster’s creation. The Gothardite/Phillipsite “quiverfull” cult is a false and heretical gospel just as surely as JWism is–or the LDS/FLDS that it is so closely related to. In fact, I dare say that their twisted worldview is closer to pagan Near Eastern fertility worship than anything in the New Testament.

    Any gospel of works, no matter how much Christianese you dress it up in, is a lie from Satan’s lair.

Leave a Reply

The Roys Report seeks to foster thoughtful and respectful dialogue. Toward that end, the site requires that people register before they begin commenting. This means no anonymous comments will be allowed. Also, any comments with profanity, name-calling, and/or a nasty tone will be deleted.
 
MOST RECENT Articles
MOST popular articles
en_USEnglish

Donate

Hi. We see this is the third article this month you’ve found worth reading. Great! Would you consider making a tax-deductible donation to help our journalists continue to report the truth and restore the church?

Your tax-deductible gift helps our journalists report the truth and hold Christian leaders and organizations accountable. Give a gift of $30 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you will receive a copy of “The Atlas Factor: Shifting Leadership Onto the Shoulders of Jesus” by Lance Ford.