’19 Kids and Counting’ Star Josh Duggar Convicted of Possessing Child Pornography

Josh Duggar, a former reality star who appeared in TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting, has been convicted of downloading and possessing child porn, the Associated Press reports.

His sentencing is slated to happen in around four months, when he could be hit with a 20-year prison sentence and fines up to $250,000 on each count, according to a press release from the Department of Justice. The 33-year-old was found guilty of one count each of receiving child porn and possessing the material by a jury in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Duggar “repeatedly downloaded and viewed images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children, including images of prepubescent children and depictions of sadistic abuse,” the press release read. He also used a  password-protected partition on his hard drive to bypass any software that could detect pornography on his computer.

The judge also allowed jurors to listen to testimony from 2003, when a family friend revealed that Duggar confessed to molesting four girls.

Federal authorities opened a probe into Duggar when a Little Rock detective discovered that a computer linked to Duggar was sharing the files. The porn was downloaded in 2019 to a computer that Duggar kept at a car dealership that he owned.

19 Kids and Counting was canceled in 2015 after reports surfaced that he had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter. Duggar didn’t face consequences after the statute of limitations had expired.

Jim Bob Duggar, Duggar’s father, is now campaigning for an open state Senate seat in Arkansas in a special election. He was previously a representative in the Arkansas House.