Horror of ‘most inbred family’ found living in squalor beset by deformities

With cruel facial deformities, stunted speech and health problems, the Colt family show just why incest is illegal.

In Germany right now, Patrick Stubing is fighting to change the law around incest in his homeland. He has four children, including two who are disabled, with his biological sister Susan Karolewski, and insists theirs is "real love".

But a quick delve into the warped world of the Colts should be horrifying enough to convince anyone that Mr Stubing's campaign should be dismissed in a heartbeat.

The Colt family shocked the world back in 2012 when they were discovered living near the Australian outback.

An awful result of four generations of incest, the clan was almost 40-strong at its peak. Shockingly, every single family member was thought to have engaged in sexual activity with at least one relative.

Found in a disgusting bush camp, living in tents and shacks, there were 12 children, many of whom had facial deformities and speech difficulties, as well as being severely malnourished.

The Colt name is actually a pseudonym used by New South Wales courts and government agencies to keep their identities unknown.

But last year, sickening new details emerged after the expiry of a 'gagging' order.

The head of the family, Tim, had arrived in Australia from New Zealand with his wife June in the 1970s. They had five girls and two boys – Martha, Frank, Paula, Cherry, Rhonda, Betty, and Charlie.

Monster Tim is said to have begun to rape Betty when she was just 12. He is also thought to have fathered some of Betty's 13 children, as well as four of Rhonda's and one of his granddaughter Raylene's offspring.

Betty only found out that her mother was also a product of incest after tests to see if she was a kidney donor match for one of her granddaughters showed it up.

After the deaths of June in 2001 and Tim in 2009, Betty led the clan of almost 40, all engaging in incest.

Children only attended school when welfare visits occurred and from the 90s onwards, the family regularly moved to avoid suspicion.

It was only after one of the children was overhead by a fellow school student that police began to track down the family.

In 2018, officers began rounding them up. First brother and sister Martha and Charlie, who claim to have shared a martial bed and have children together, were arrested.

Betty, along with her siblings Rhonda and Frank, joined them. Betty's children Derek and Raylene, and Frank's son Cliff, too.

When the farm was discovered, the children there were aged between five and 12. Many had, alongside the facial deformities, speech difficulties, were illiterate, had no idea how to use toilet paper and slept next to buckets of faeces and urine.

One little boy had a walking impairment and severe psoriasis, another had hearing and sight problems while a third had misaligned eyes. One girl couldn't hear or write, had stunted speech and was unable to bathe or dry herself.

After the court case, all children were permanently removed with the court stating: "There is no realistic possibility of restoration of any of the children to their biological family."

Betty was hit with 14 months in jail after being convicted of four counts of perjury, one of lying under oath and one of perverting the course of justice.

Betty was jailed again for 12 months after attempting to kidnap two of her sons from their foster parents. She planned to remove sons Bobby and Billy from care and take them to live on a South Australian fruit-picking farm.

She is also banned from contacting 14 members of her family, including her 12 children.

Betty's maximum jail sentence of two years and four months expired in August 2021. Martha was jailed for two years after concealing the paternity of her children – thought to be Martha's brother Charlie.

According to the New Zealand Herald, eldest child of Tim and June, Rhonda received a 14-month intensive corrections order which expired in August 2021. Betty's daughter Raylene was sentenced to a 16 month ICO for perjury, which expired in October 2021.

Charlie Colt originally faced 27 charges and was found not guilty of two charges and was acquitted, with the balance being withdrawn. Derek received a maximum three years and ten months for incest in 2020.

Martha and Charlie's son Roderick was found guilty of rape and is serving a maximum four year sentence. However, only half of the Colts arrested in 2018 received custodial sentences.

Suppression orders have remained in place on the family's interbreeding practices and sexual interactions – three of the family, Martha, Derek and Martha and Charlie's son Roderick, all had filed intentions to appeal in 2020 but these have expired.

Now, in 2022, many of the children have reached adulthood and are said to have shown massive improvement in personal hygiene and health.

When they were first placed in care, there were worries that some of the children would struggle to adjust with many of them showing worrying behaviours and admitting to torturing animals and sexual relations with siblings.

Some of the children had to undergo treatment for sexualised behaviours and psychological trauma.

But it is still thought many of the family still stay in touch via social media, living across South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales.

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