In a rural farming valley, two great-great grandparents had established a horrifying incest cult. Generations of inbreeding left their progeny terribly malformed, unable to speak or see clearly.
Officials were appalled to see 38 people, all related by blood, living in filth on the isolated Australian farm when social workers finally located them.
The badly damaged children were unable of speaking due to their extreme mistreatment. Their new guardians saw unsettling hypersexual conduct after they were placed in foster homes.
According to the New Zealand Herald, a distressing Facebook post titled “Love Makes a Family” was made by one of the parents years later.
June and Tim, who were married in New Zealand in 1966 before relocating to Australia, marked the beginning of the tragedy for the Colts, a fictitious name provided by the court.
Martha was the youngest of their seven children.
All 38 of them had experienced years of sexual abuse at the hands of dads, siblings, cousins, uncles, and grandfathers throughout four generations.
In June 2010, the Colts received formal notice for the first time. Seven “risk of significant harm reports” were filed over a two-year period, mostly pertaining to neglect, the inability to obtain necessary medical care, and the failure to guarantee the children’s attendance at school.
Social services eventually obtained access to the family’s makeshift camp in 2010.
There were no restrooms or running water at the location. The kids used their hands to eat, couldn’t clean their teeth, couldn’t brush their hair, and didn’t know how to use toilet paper.
Produce decayed in the refrigerator, the mattress looked discolored with dirt, and the cooking area of the trailer was covered with filth. On one of the kids’ beds, a kangaroo was found dozing off.
A few of the kids had obvious deformities, such as crooked eyes, low-set ears, and an appearance that was significantly older than their actual age. It was discovered that only Rhonda’s five-year-old kid was not fathered by a biological relative.
The other children were the offspring of incest.
Despite DNA testing showing otherwise, Betty, Martha, and Raylene all dispute that their children are the product of incest.
Three of the girls, who were seven, eight, and nine years old, said that Charlie Colt, their uncle, was also their father. When the kids were taken away, he resided on the land.
Additionally, the nine-year-old said that she had intercourse with Charlie Colt.
Timothy Colt, the family patriarch who died in 2009, is thought to have fathered children with one of his daughters and one of his granddaughters. Five of the lads who were removed also acknowledged mistreating cats and puppies on the premises.
They also admitted that they had disfigured animal genitalia.
In June 2012, the family first complied with a request from social services to improve their living circumstances. However, a month later, 12 kids, all of whom were relatives and ranged in age from five to fifteen, were taken into police custody after authorities concluded that they would be in danger if they stayed on the farm.
Every youngster who was taken away will remain in foster care until they turn eighteen. When the New South Wales children’s court made the unusual decision to make its findings public, the case gained widespread attention.
Tim Colt, Martha’s father, was likely also the father of his daughter Betty’s thirteen children, according to testimony given at the trials of other Colt family members in 2021.
Five of her brother Charlie’s children were born to Martha, who publicly shared a “marital bed” with him. During Martha’s trial, it was discovered that Charlie, her own father Tim, and another sibling were probably the father of her children.
Roderick, Martha, and Derek Colt, three family members, filed notifications of intention to appeal in 2020, but they have all since expired. Many of the initial 80 allegations against eight Colts, which included indecency against a minor, incest, child sexual assault, and perjury, were dropped.
Charlie Colt faced 27 charges at first, but he was exonerated on two of them and the other charges were dismissed. Roderick, his brother, was found guilty of sexually abusing Petra, his half-sister and niece.
It became clear during his legal proceedings that Petra, who was born to Roderick’s sister Betty and their father Tim, was also Roderick’s half-sister.
Only half of the eight family members who were arrested in 2018 have been sentenced to prison.
Like Martha, her elder sisters Betty and Rhonda, as well as Betty’s daughter Raylene, were accused of misleading authorities on the parentage of their children. “Love Makes a Family” was the caption on a picture Betty Colt shared on Facebook in 2018 that showed her with two female family members.
For perjury, Rhonda was given a 14-month intensive corrections order (ICO), which ended in 2021. Raylene’s 16-month ICO for perjury was likewise completed in 2021.
Betty was sentenced to 14 months in prison after being found guilty of four charges of perjury, one count of lying under oath, and one count of perverting the course of justice.
The youngest sister, Martha, entered a guilty plea to one count of making a false statement under oath and five counts of perjury.
