The Duggars: A FAMILY FRACTURED

ROCKED BY SCANDAL, THE FAMOUSLY TIGHT-KNIT REALITY TV FAMILY AND THEIR CAREFULLY CULTIVATED IMAGE — HAVE COME UNDONE

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Josh Duggar is currently living in home confinement at a rural Arkansas residence belonging to his father’s church friends, while his attorneys file the latest in a barrage of attempts to persuade a judge to toss out his felony child-porn case. Forbidden from seeing his six children without his wife, Anna, present, banned from accessing the internet and tracked around the clock by a GPS ankle monitor, Josh has been holed up on the nine-acre property since his April 29 arrest on charges of downloading hundreds of disturbing child sex abuse videos.

The latest manoeuvrings by his lawyers – whose court filings weeks earlier were described by prosecutors as a “fishing expedition” for non-existent evidence – were a shocking reminder of just how low the former reality TV star has sunk. “He really thinks he’s going to get out of it,” says a family insider, describing the 33-year-old used-car salesman, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of possessing and receiving child pornography, as “very arrogant and narcissistic”.

Local clothing store owner Sandy Hurd seemed to voice the frustration of many in the Duggars’ tiny communities of Springdale and Tontitown, Arkansas, who have grown weary of the succession of scandals surrounding Josh and his famous family. “It makes me sick,” says Hurd. “I hope he gets what’s coming to him.”