Duggar family friend tells court how Josh Duggar confessed to molesting sisters

A lifelong 'best friend' of the Duggar family broke down in court today as she described how Josh Duggar confessed in his teens to molesting four of his sisters during bible time and while they slept.

Bobye Holt told the disgraced reality star's child pornography trial how Jim Bob Duggar asked her and her husband Jim Holt, a former Arkansas state senator, to urgently come over to their house on March 30, 2003.

Holt, a mother-of-11, said Jim and Jimbob had been best friends since school and the two families were 'very best friends' who would spend every day together.

When they convened for their 'emergency' meeting, Holt's eldest daughter was going on chaperoned dates with Josh Duggar and the two families hoped they would eventually marry. 

'They took us to their bedroom and Josh was sitting on the floor,' she told a federal courthouse in Fayetteville, Arkansas, her voice trembling.

Duggar, who was 15 at the time, proceeded to tell the stunned Holts that he had sexually assaulted one of his sisters, referred to only as Jane Doe 4, earlier that day.

'He had Jane Doe 4 on his lap during bible time and he touched her private area, her breast area and her bottom area,' said Holt, adding that the sister in question was five when the abuse happened.

'He ended up confessing that, on and off, since he was 12 years old, he would touch Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3.

'He said he touched their breast area, their private area, on top of their clothes, sometimes under, when they were sleeping.'

Holt told jurors that her daughter's courtship with Josh Duggar was immediately 'called off' and Josh was taken by her husband and Jim Bob to a 'facility for troubled youth.'

The two families remained inseparable, however, and in early 2005 Josh would spend evenings with the couple 'confessing' his sins and talking over issues that were on his mind.

This included revisiting and elaborating on the 2003 molestation incident with Jane Doe 4, Holt told the court.

'He told me that he actually went under her pantaloons and under her panties and touched her vagina,' she said.

Holt said she asked Duggar if he had merely touched his sister's privates or whether he had penetrated her with his fingers.

'He said both,' she recalled, struggling to continue as she fought tears.

Holt told the court she had been approached multiple times and even offered money over the years to talk about the abuse scandal but had refused on every occasion before the prosecution asked for her cooperation.

'I still love Josh,' she insisted, concluding her evidence as Duggar, 33, in a black suit, striped tie and black facemask, looked on without showing any flicker of emotion.

His wife Anna was sat a few yards away in the public gallery where she was hugged afterwards by his sister Jessa and other Duggar family members including their sibling Joy-Anna Forsyth.

Defense lawyers had tried to prevent Holt from giving testimony on the basis of 'clergy privilege', arguing that she and her husband were church leaders and the confession came during prayer and 'priestly consolation and guidance'. 

However Holt insisted she was not a church elder and that the church had nothing to do with her discussions with Duggar. 

Judge Timothy Brooks ruled in the prosecution's favor, noting that the youngsters who appeared in Duggar's alleged trove of child porn were roughly the same age as the victims of his 'hands-on child molestation offenses'.