Joseph Garrett Duggar, who appeared on 19 Kids and Counting, has been arrested following accusations that he molested a child.
The 31-year-old was charged yesterday with lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim less than 12 years old, conducted by a person 18 years or older.
This is after he allegedly assaulted a nine-year-old girl in Florida in 2020 while she was on holiday with her family.
Bay County’s Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the ex-TLC personality repeatedly engaged in ‘unlawful sexual activity’ with the girl at Panama City Beach.
Now aged 14, the girl reported the ‘past sexual abuse’ earlier that day to the police in Tontitown, Arkansas, disclosing ‘several incidents’, with a warrant then issued for Duggar’s arrest.
A statement from the Sheriff’s Office included: ‘The victim reported Duggar repeatedly asked her to sit on his lap.
‘As the vacation continued, he also asked her to sit next to him on a couch and covered them with a blanket. During this time, Duggar manipulated the victim’s underwear and grazed her genitals. Duggar would also continue to rub his hands on her thighs.’
She told investigators that he ‘eventually apologised for his actions, and the incidents stopped after the apology’.
The Sheriff’s Office added that Duggar ‘admitted his actions to the victim’s father and to Tontitown detectives’ after the dad confronted him on March 17.
Duggar is now awaiting extradition to Bay County, the Sheriff’s Office has said.
It is unclear at this time whether he has a lawyer.
Duggar became known to the public in 2008, when he and 18 siblings featured on TV with their parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.
He has been married to his wife, Kendra, for three years, and they share four children between the ages of three and seven.
At the time of its broadcast, 19 Kids and Counting was among TLC’s top-performing shows and ran for 10 seasons.
However, it was pulled off the air in 2015 after allegations surfaced against oldest child Josh. It was said he had molested several girls when he was a teen.
No criminal charges came from the allegations, but the Duggar parents said on Fox News that year that four of the five victims were Josh’s sisters.
Josh was also found guilty by a jury in December 2021 after he was discovered to have downloaded around 600 photographs and seven videos of violent child sexual abuse.
The verdict convicted him on one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. A judge later vacated the possession charge.
He was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison, where he is expected to remain until 2032, since his appeal for a new trial was denied in 2023. Josh has maintained that he was denied a fair trial and seeks to overturn his conviction.
Additionally, Josh was ordered to serve 20 years of supervised release, register as a sex offender, and pay $50,000 (£37.4k) in fines.
Josh is married to Anna, and they have seven children.
He previously apologised for marital infidelity and confessed to a pornography addiction, for which he sought treatment.
In recent years, several other members of the Duggar family have distanced themselves from both Josh and their parents.
Learn more about NSPCC
The NSPCC has been looking out for children for 140 years.
If you are worried about a child, you can contact the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000 or by email at help@NSPCC.org.uk
Children can call the NSPC’s Childline for free on 0800 1111, send an email, or live chat with a counsellor.
The NSPCC is there to help children being abused – whether by an adult or another child. The abuse can be physical, sexual, or emotional and can happen on or offline.
You can find out more here.
