On Thursday, former reality star and father of seven Josh Duggar was convicted on charges of “knowing receiving and possessing child pornography,” PEOPLE reports. The 33-year-old is facing up to 20 years in prison and up to $250,000 for each conviction, but because possession is a lesser offence, he’ll technically only be sentenced “for the receipt crime.”
An exact date for Duggar’s sentencing has yet to be confirmed, but those keeping up with the updates can expect to hear the Arkansas’ native’s fate in about four months, pending a pre-sentence investigation.
Following his conviction earlier this week, the 19 Kids and Counting star was led away by U.S. marshals in handcuffs, seemingly becoming more and more distraught while he briefly stopped to speak with his wife and the mother of his children, Anna Renee Duggar.
“A child predator has been brought to justice,” Billy Riggins, Homeland Security’s resident agent-in-charge said while celebrating the verdict outside of the courthouse. “First and foremost, this shows that no person is above the law,” Clay Fowlkes, acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas added. While Duggar’s attorneys shared that they “respect the jury’s verdict,” they added that they vow to appeal in the future.
PEOPLE notes that it was two years ago when Homeland Security Agents searched Duggar’s Wholesale Motorcars, where they seized two personal devices and a work desktop. Upon doing some investigating, it was discovered that the disgraced man had “devised an elaborate hidden system on his work computer with which it view the child pornography.”
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During the testimony, James Fottrell, director of the Department of Justice’s High Technology Investigative Unit said that he had found photos and videos of children – some of whom were younger than 10 – being sexually abused on Duggar’s devices, which he personally analyzed. Apparently, the content was made available on a separate password-protected operating system on his computer.
Years before the latest scandal, the Duggar family found themselves at the centre of controversy when it came out that Josh had molested four of his younger sisters and a babysitter while he was a boy and a teenager.
Read more about the harrowing trial from earlier this week here.
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