Cult of incest in an extended family

Children of horrifying incest 'cult'
with four generations of in-
breeding found living deformed,
filthy and mute in scenic valley In New South Wales, Australia, described
as one of worst in history Brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts had sex with
each other for decades Children were severely disabled with one girl,
nine, unable to read or talk She was unable to bathe herself and did not
know what toilet paper was The dark, disturbing secrets of a picturesque Australian
valley where unwashed children born from generations
of incest lived with physical deformities in a 'cult' of 40
adults and youngsters emerged today. Incapable of intelligible speech, some of the children
had oddly-formed features as the result of being born to
parents who were themselves related. Brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts had sex with one
another over four generations, raising childen in squalid
conditions who themselves grew up to become intimate
and have more inbred children. The children found living in filth in sheds and broken
down caravans had numerous disabilities from their
inbred births, including a boy with a walking impairment
and severe psoriasis, another with hearing and sight
problems and yet another boy whose eyes were
misaligned. A nine-year-old girl, who could not hear or write and
had fragmented and stunted speech, was unable to
bathe or dry herself and did not know how to use a toilet
or what toilet paper was. The shocking discovery of the family's depraved life in
the valley, lying south west of Sydney, were reminiscent
of the inbred hillbillies featured in the movie Deliverance. Sickening details of generations of child abuse were
published today by news.com.au , drawing on a judgement from the New South Wales Children's Court
which, in a rare step, agreed to make its findings public. The name of the hidden valley has been kept secret and
the family has been given the pseudonym Colt in order
to protect the identity of the minors. But details of the debased lives of adults and children
have been released because it is understood the court
felt the nation should know about the worst case of
incest it had ever heard. Across four generations of intimate relations, the family
moved around the country, from South Australia, to
Victoria, Western Australia and then back across the
continent to the fertile valley south of Sydney. MORE... EXCLUSIVE: Heisman Trophy finalist AJ McCarron
pictured with uncle charged with rape and incest for
'luring victim, 13, with promise of pet hamster in
family pedophile ring' Mother of missing Brittney Wood makes shocking
plea to her own SISTER to reveal where body of teen
who was 'about to expose family pedophile ring' is
buried The debauched lives of the current generation of adults
might never have been found if residents of a nearby
town had not reported that there were children living in
the hills who had not been attending school. In the nearby town, the name of which has been
suppressed, one local resident said people used to make
jokes that if anyone came from that valley 'you'd be
inbred'. The man told the Sydney paper that on occasions two
women with 'about ten children' would emerge from a
car that had interstate plates, buy something in the
shops and leave. 'They were never clean looking,' said the man. And there
was 'nothing' on the blocks of land where the family
lived - 'no electricity, no water, just scrub.' Police and child care workers were stunned when they
arrived at the cult camp, some 20 miles from the nearest
town and surrounded by trees where 19th century
bushrangers once roamed. They found 40 adults and
children living in two broken-down caravans, two sheds
and tents, where there was no running water or sewage. The Telegraph reported that dirt caked the surfaces of
stoves and cooking facilities, rotten vegetables lay in a
refrigerator and a kangaroo was sleeping on one of the
children's beds.Chainsaws, bags of rubbish and
exposed electrical wires lay about. There were no toilets,
showers or baths. 'I'll never get over what I saw there,' a female police
officer later reportedly told one of her colleagues. But at the time even she did not realise that the 'family
cult' was a throwback to a pair of great-great
grandparents who were a brother and sister. Down
through the generations, the family continued to
regenerate itself, the children beginning to have sex with
one another as soon as they were old enough. The result, the court documents revealed, was that some
of the children seemed developmentally delayed,
cognitively impaired or physically handicapped - the
shocking result of sex between brothers and sisters,
uncles and nieces and fathers and daughters. According to the documents, the children were sexually
involved with each other and only one - a five-year-old
girl, the youngest - had parents who weren't related to
each other. The Telegraph said that what the police and community
care officials witnessed was 'a social time bomb
exploding before their eyes.' The five family groups comprised sisters Rhonda, 47;
Martha, 33; and Betty Colt, 46, who slept every night
with her brother, Charlie. There were also two of Betty's
daughters who each had children who proved to be
from unions of related parents. Betty's son Bobby, 15, who had severe psoriasis and
needed urgent dental work, could not talk in a way that
could be understood, he wet and soiled his bed and his
learning ability was at kindergarten level. Martha's sons Albert, 15, and Jed, 14, also had speech
problems, no personal hygiene and teeth that were in
need of urgent dental work. Betty's son Billy, 14, was underweight and not growing
properly, as well as having hearing and sight problems,
spoke unintelligibly, had an intellectual disability and
could barely read or count. Fourteen-year-old Kimberly Colt was underweight and
could not clean her teeth, use toilet paper or comb her
hair. She had problems with hearing, speech, sight,
could not read or write and did not know how to use
toilet paper or comb her hair. When approached by one of the officers who had called
at the 'camp' Kimberly threatened to cut off the officer's
fingers. Betty's son Brian, 12, had extensively decayed teeth,
had borderline normal hearing and did not understand
showering. His eyes were misaligned and he could not
read, write or recognise numbers. On July 18, 2012, police and social workers removed 12
children from the valley - and after careful questioning,
harrowing tales emerged. Kimberly told of sexual contact with her uncle, Dwayne,
who was 9 years old, while her aunt, Carmen, 8,
watched. Sisters Ruth, 7, and Nadia, 9,  had sexual
touching with their brothers Albert, 15; Jed, 14; and
Karl, 12. In one sad story, social workers were told how three
brothers aged 14 and under tied their sister, 8, and
niece, 13, naked to a tree. The court documents revealed that clinicians and
geneticists who took mouth swabs from the children
deduced five of them had parents who were themselves
'closely related' to one another while another five had
parents who were 'related'. But the complex tale of intimate relations was found to
go back to Betty, Martha and Rhonda's maternal
grandparents, who had been brother and sister. Betty had 13 children, some of whom were probably
fathered by her father, Tim, and her brother, Charlie.
Along the way one of Betty's daughters, Tammy, 27,
died from a genetic disease known as Zellweger
syndrome. Since the discovery of the shocking events in the
hidden valley, some children have since been placed
with foster families, while others are in treatment
programmes for sexualised behaviour and psychological
trauma. They are said to be making progress with schooling and
hygiene, but Betty Colt, said the Telegraph, appears to
be in denial and her lawyer has disputed the court's
findings.