Former TLC Star Toby Willis Pleads Guilty to Child Rape and Receives 40-Year Sentence

Toby Willis, the patriarch of TLC’s former reality show The Willis Family, pleaded guilty to four counts of child rape on Tuesday and will serve 40 years in prison, PEOPLE confirms.

Willis received 25-year sentences on two of the rape counts and 40-year sentences on the other two counts, according to Julie Hibbs, the circuit court clerk in Cheatham County, Tennessee.

Hibbs tells PEOPLE the four sentences will run concurrently and be served in their entirety — meaning Willis, a 47-year-old father of 12, will be in prison for 40 years.

Calls to his attorney and to the district attorney general for Cheatham County were not immediately returned.

At the D.A.’s request, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation began investigating Willis in August 2016 in connection with the sexual abuse of an underage girl about 12 years earlier, when the girl was between 3 and 13 years old, authorities have said.

The TBI said Willis fled from his home in Ashland City, Tennessee, to avoid law enforcement but was arrested on Sept. 9, 2016, in Greenville Kentucky, and charged with one count of rape of a child. Three additional counts were later added.

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