Judge Sentences Duggar to More Than 12 Years

Update: Josh Duggar was sentenced Wednesday to more than 12 years in prison on his child pornography conviction, a punishment in between the terms proposed by defense lawyers and prosecutors. The former reality TV star, whose lawyers said he'll appeal the conviction, showed no reaction when the 151-month sentence was read in an Arkansas courtroom, People reports. The federal judge ordered 20 years' probation for Duggar after his release. He's to have no unsupervised contact with his children or any other minors and will have to take part in sex offender treatment. Over defense objections, the judge prohibited Duggar from viewing any sort of pornography, including adult pornography. Our story from May 12 follows:

Prosecutors in Arkansas have asked a federal court to impose the maximum possible sentence on Josh Duggar—20 years in prison—for his child pornography conviction. The former reality TV star was convicted of two counts in December. One of the counts was dropped for sentencing, leaving 20 years as the longest prison term possible, WJW reports. Prosecutors filed a 30-page sentencing memorandum arguing that 20 years would be in alignment with guidelines. The filing says Duggar went to "great lengths" to obtain child sexual abuse content, avoiding detection by accountability software installed on his computer.

"Duggar, perhaps more than any other individual presented to this Court, was willing to go through exhaustive efforts to obtain" such material undetected, the memo says. The filing by the defense team calls for a sentence that's "sufficient, but not greater than necessary," asking the court to not impose more than to five years. The filing includes character references, per KFSM, and argues that Duggar's reputation, career, and family already have suffered and that his life has been shattered by his conviction. Prosecutors included a request relayed by the mother of a girl who was sexually abused and shown in the material on Duggar's computer. Asked what the judge should be told, the mother said her daughter said, "Please, don't let them pretend no one's getting hurt." (More Josh Duggar stories.)