Former 19 Kids And Counting Star Josh Duggar Facing 20 Years In Prison After Being Found Guilty Of Child Porn Offences

Josh Duggar, who earlier appeared in 19 Kids and Counting, is awaiting sentencing for child porn offences.

The reality star is facing up to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of receiving and possessing child porn.

In 2019, police found Duggar had been browsing and downloading more than 600 photos and videos of children 'as young as toddlers' being sexually abused.

He'd used a complicated Linux partition and explored the dark web using an encrypted Tor browser.

Alamy

He was found guilty on 9 December last year, and has remained in prison since. His sentencing is scheduled for 25 May.

In May last year, a Homeland Security Investigations agent described some of the material, including the sexual assault of an 18-month-old girl, calling it the 'top five worst of the worst' he'd ever examined in his career, as per Law and Crime.

In a sentencing memo, prosecutors wrote: "Distressingly, the market for child pornography has continued to grow, and to become more depraved, in recent years.

"That depravity is evident here. As noted above, Duggar sought out images and videos depicting prepubescent minors being subjected to sadistic and masochistic abuse."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Roberts continued: "As an initial matter, Duggar used multiple means – uTorrent and Tor – to search for and download [child sex abuse materials] of a sadistic nature, including CSAM depicting prepubescent minors being subjected to violent abuse.

"Duggar’s barebones objection to this enhancement should be denied because the evidence produced at trial, which included visual depictions from Duggar’s computer of prepubescent girls being vaginally penetrated and bound with rope, easily satisfies the requirements to apply this enhancement."

Alamy

In a sentencing memorandum, Duggar's wife, Anna, and his mother, Michelle, asked for lenience in his sentencing, despite the extensive, horrific nature of his crimes.

Michelle said Duggar is 'compassionate toward others' and 'a positive and upbeat person', while Anna said he's 'the kindest person I know' and a 'loving, supportive, and caring father' to his seven children.

Meanwhile, one parent of an unnamed victim in one of Duggar's files said: "I can find no words to express the fury I feel at those who participate in this evil, or my scorn for any attempt to minimise the responsibility by feeble claims that the crime was ‘victimless'.

"My daughter is a real person. She was horribly victimised to provide this source of ‘entertainment'. She is exploited anew each and every time an image of her suffering is copied, traded or sold."

If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 8am–10pm Monday to Friday, 9am–6pm weekends. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111