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Josh Duggar is going to jail for a very long time.
On Thursday morning, after approximately 24 hours of deliberation, a jury returned a verdict of GUILTY against the former reality star.
To be specific, it found Josh Duggar guilty of one count of receiving and one count of possessing child pornography, meaning he may be fined up to $500,000 total and face a prison sentence of up to 40 years.
A father of seven, Duggar was arrested in April on the aforementioned charges, with federal agents having raided his place of work — a used car dealership in Arkansas — in November.
They said that an IP address traced back to Josh’s computer at the dealership had been flagged for downloading sexuallly graphic material of minors.
As we later learned, this material included photographs and videos of children as young as five years old.
At one pre-trial hearing, a federal agent who was part of the car dealership raid labeled one of these videos as among the top five worst things he had ever seen in his line of work.
Duggar pleaded not guilty to these charges on May 6.
He was banned at the time from living in his own house due to the presence of his six kids (Josh’s wife, Anna, gave birth to child number-seven in October), all of whom are considered minors in the eyes of the law.
As a result, Josh was sent to live with the Rebers, family friends of the Duggars who have acted as Duggar’s guardians over the past seven months.
He seemingly remained close with his wife, however, as muliple sources said over the summer that Anna spent numerous nights each week with her husband.
The week-long trial included testimony from digital forensic analysts, along with other witnesses.
One family friend, who has been close to Josh’s parents for well over three decades, detailed at one point how the ex-TLC personality confessed to molesting little girls when he was a young teenager.
At another point, members of the jury were shown a video downloaded to Duggar’s computer in May 2019.
It featured the torture of a three-month old child.
In her closing argument on Wednesday, prosecutor Carly Marshall listed all the technical evidence against Duggar.
She outlined specific ways the government was certain he sat behind his workplace computer and downloaded this illegal material.
For example:
The attorney noted how the section of his computer that featured the child pornography was protected with a password Josh had used often over the years… even on his family Instagram account.
“Is this really a whodunit?” she asked, refuting the defense team’s argument.
“His car lot. His office. His computer.”
Simply put, Marshall continued?
“Evidence in this case points to Josh Duggar.”
And now a jury of Duggar’s peers has unanimously agreed.
Immediately after the guilty verdict was read aloud, Duggar was taken into custody, according to a Sun reporter present at the trial on Thursday, who quoted the judge as follows:
“Mr. Duggar 100 percent has been compliant awaiting trial.”
“I appreciate that and I wanted to acknowledge that.”
“However because of the guilty offenses, he must be detained regardless of flight risk so there will be a mandatory detention.”
This same reporter described Duggar as “teary-eyed but not crying” when the verdict was handed out, while stating that he appeared “solemn.”
Josh told his wife he loved her on the way out of the courtroom.
Jim Bob gave a “stoic” Anna a hug and then exited the proceedings with his son, Justin Duggar, and daughter-in-law, Claire Spivey.
Said an attorney for the defense on Thursday: “We respect the jury’s verdict and we look forward to continuing this fight on appeal.
“We plan to appeal at the appropriate time.”
As noted above, Duggar faces many decades behind bars – but the judge said this morning that sentencing may not take place until the spring.
Duggar’s arrest was merely the latest in a series of personal scandals that rocked him and his family.
As a result, many believe that today’s judgment was a long time coming.
19 Kids and Counting, the program that raised the profile of the Duggars on a national scale, was canceled in 2015 after a nine-year old police report was released by In Touch Weekly.
It revealed Josh had been investigated for molesting the four younger girls when he was a boy and teenager.
Two of these victims were his own sisters.
Later in 2015, Duggar also confessed to having a pornography addiction and being “unfaithful” in his marriage.
A spin-off of 19 Kids and Counting that followed his siblings, titled Counting On, was canceled in 2021.
After his arrest on the child pornography charges, not even TLC could take the heat any longer.
In a statement immediately after their son was charged, parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar – accused of covering up his crimes in the past – said:
“The accusations brought against Joshua today are very serious.”
That would be putting it mildly.
They concluded at the time:
“It is our prayer that the truth, no matter what it is, will come to light, and that this will all be resolved in a timely manner.
“We love Josh and [his wife] Anna and continue to pray for their family.”
Indeed, the truth has now come out. Josh Duggar is a convicted pedophile.
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