Former ‘19 Youngsters And Counting’ Star Accused Of Youngster Sexual Abuse

[ad_1] Joseph Duggar, a member of the Duggar household made well-known on the TLC actuality collection “19 Youngsters and Counting,” has been charged with sexual abuse of a minor.

The 31-year-old Arkansas native was arrested on Wednesday for a criminal offense that allegedly happened in 2020. Duggar is accused of assaulting a 9-year-old lady in Panama Metropolis Seaside, Florida, whereas the kid was on trip along with her household.

Authorities allege that Duggar requested the sufferer to sit down on his lap and proceeded to sexually assault her.

“As the holiday continued, he additionally requested her to sit down subsequent to him on a sofa and lined them with a blanket. Throughout this time, Duggar manipulated the sufferer’s underwear and grazed her genitals. Duggar would additionally proceed to rub his arms on her thighs,” the Bay County Sheriff’s Workplace stated in a assertion . “The sufferer said Duggar finally apologized for his actions and the incidents stopped after the apology.”

In accordance with authorities, the sufferer’s father later confronted Duggar concerning the alleged abuse, prompting Duggar to confess to these actions.

Duggar was charged with lewd and lascivious conduct, molestation of a sufferer youthful than 12 years previous, and lewd and lascivious conduct performed by an individual 18 years or older, the assertion famous.

Joseph is the seventh youngster in a household of 19 kids. These accusations come virtually 4 years after Joseph’s older brother, Josh Duggar, was sentenced to greater than 12 years in jail on fees of possession of kid pornography in 2022. Josh was additionally accused of sexually abusing 5 women, together with a number of of his sisters.

The TLC actuality collection was canceled in 2015 following revelations that Josh molested his sisters and a babysitter when he was a teen. Josh additionally admitted to dishonest on his spouse and issued a public apology.

TLC launched a derivative collection, “Counting On,” which was principally about two sisters from the Duggar household. It was additionally canceled following Josh’s 2021 arrest.

Joseph works as an actual property dealer and has been married to Kendra since 2017, per Folks. The couple has three kids collectively and presumably a fourth, although they stopped sharing their lives on social media a number of years in the past and didn't publicly announce one other start.