Courtesy of Jill Duggar/Instagram; Getty
Jill Duggar Was ‘Willing’ to Testify Against Josh in Child Porn Trial: I Wanted Him to Be ‘Put Away’
Jill Duggar was ready to testify against the “monster” that is her older brother Josh Duggar, as she wanted him “to be put away for a very long time” following his arrest on child pornography charges.
In her memoir, Counting the Cost, released on Tuesday, September 12, Jill, 32, reflected on the time during her brother’s 2021 trial when she was told to avoid reading about the situation due to being on the witness list. “I had thought about what Josh had done and reached a clear conclusion,” she described in her book. “After years and years of following the family line and trusting Pops when he said that things were better dealt with within the family, I wanted something different to happen. I wanted to know the truth.”
Emphasizing that she felt “so much anger it burned,” Jill wanted Josh, 35, to pay for “hurting innocent children” after “avoiding responsibility” for so many years.
“I felt sad, too. Sad that Josh had become such a monster, sad that even with all of the chances Josh had been given to change, he had thrown them all away and he continued down a dark, terrible road,” she continued. “Like the rest of the world, I was finally able to see my eldest brother for what he was – a man unable to control himself, totally detached from the reality of how deeply he was hurting others.”
The eldest Duggar sibling was arrested in April 2021 on one count of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. He pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and was later convicted of both counts in December 2021, with the possession conviction eventually being dismissed.
The former car salesman was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison and is currently carrying out his sentence at the Federal Correctional Facility (FCI) Seagoville in Texas. His release date is scheduled for October 10, 2032, after his original stay was extended, according to the Bureau of Prisons, In Touch learned in May 2023.
Prior to Josh’s child pornography trial, Josh confessed to his father, Jim Bob Duggar, to molesting five underage girls — including his sisters Jill and Jessa Duggar. Instead of reporting the incident to authorities, the patriarch, 58, consulted with the elders of his church and opted to send his son to a Christian rehab center.
Jill later condemned her parents for going the extra mile to cover up Josh’s crimes against his sisters, noting in her book that it made her feel “sick.”
“Though I love my parents and it made a lot of sense that they would want to protect and care for their child,” the mom of three spoke about her parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. “I couldn’t help but think about the lengths that Pops had gone to in order to guard Josh’s privacy and keep him from being publicly humiliated.”
The Counting On alum also detailed the moment she finally reunited with her parents to discuss their troubled relationship. Jill recalled that her father called her “guilty” after she responded by labeling him verbally abusive. Bursting into tears, Jill felt that her father targeted her because she was “evolving,” and told him, “You treat me worse than you treat my pedophile brother.” The meeting lasted about three hours, with “not much in the way of resolution.”
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