Inside squalid cult in the woods where ‘most inbred family’ lived | World | News
Shocking revelations have emerged about the deceased leader of a multi-generational incestuous clan living under horrific conditions in a remote settlement in Australia.
Tim Colt served as the head of the family and as the suspected perpetrator of sexual crimes against numerous female family members, many of whom were also daughters and grandchildren. The news comes after America’s most storied family was thrown into turmoil.
The original ruling by NSW Children’s Court Chief Judge Peter Johnstone in 2013 found the Colts were descended from a brother and sister from New Zealand. “Colt” represented a court-appointed nickname.
These brothers produced June Colt, who became Tim Colt’s wife.
June and Tim, who married in New Zealand in 1966 before moving to Australia, had seven children, the youngest of whom is Martha.
Details of incest shocked the world
Five of these siblings (Betty, Charlie, Rhonda, Roderick, and Martha) would face charges in subsequent legal proceedings.
The remaining three defendants – Derek, Cliff and Raylene – were June’s grandchildren after her death in Victoria in 2001.
Martha, whose identity is protected by a pseudonym, was sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison for providing false information about the paternity of her five children. Genetic analysis confirmed that her child resulted from close relationships with a blood relative.
Information released in 2021, following the lifting of previous suppression orders regarding the Colt family’s incestuous behavior patterns, showed that Martha’s children were likely impregnated by more than one family member.
It was initially believed that Martha’s brother Charlie was the father of her children; Yet Martha’s court hearings revealed additional evidence that her child was likely born to Charlie, her own father Tim, and another sibling, as documented by the New Zealand Herald.
Approximately 40 members of the clan have been discovered
Additional testimony from the trials of other members of the Colt family indicates that Tim was likely the father of all 13 of his daughter Betty’s children, according to the New Zealand Herald.
The publication reports that Tim is likely the father of all four of his daughter Rhonda’s children and is likely the father of his granddaughter Raylene’s child as well.
It was only learned that the father of Rhonda’s 5-year-old daughter was not related by blood.
In 2012, New South Wales police discovered 38 people living in a squalid bush camp on the outskirts of the small town of Boorowa. The group existed in terrible conditions.
Conditions were terrible
As the Sydney Morning Herald documented in 2013, “The children were malnourished, dirty, could barely speak, had terrible hygiene and lived without electricity or running water.”
The Colt children’s plight, combined with their lack of school attendance, triggered concerns among education officials nearly a year after the family settled in Boorowa. In June 2012, authorities paid a visit and witnessed the shocking squalor of living conditions that the children were forced to endure.
Many of the children were mentally and physically disabled; Some didn’t even know how to use a toothbrush. The court immediately removed them from the family, setting a new benchmark in Australian case law, Vice reported.
