Deformed children unable to speak or wash themselves have been discovered in a remote Australian valley in the worst case of incest the country has seen.
The 40-strong family of adults and youngsters are the result of four generations of inbreeding in which brothers and sisters were encouraged to have sex.
The depraved ‘incest cult’ was found living in squalid sheds, tents and caravans without plumbing or running water.
The family is believed to have been started by great-great grandparents who were themselves brother and sister
Younger members had oddly-formed features, severe learning disabilities and did not know how to use a toilet or loo roll.
They included a boy with a walking impairment and severe psoriasis, another with hearing and sight problems and a third boy whose eyes were misaligned.
A nine-year-old girl could not hear or write, had stunted speech and was unable to bathe or dry herself.
Sickening details of generations of child abuse emerged from the New South Wales Children’s Court which placed some of the children in psychological treatment programmes for over-sexualised behaviour.
The court’s findings are normally kept secret but judges took the unusual step of publishing details of the worst case of incest it had ever recorded.
Siblings who had sex as soon as they were old enough then had offspring which were also encouraged to procreate.
Fathers are also believed to have had sex with their daughters.
The family had moved around from South Australia to Western Australia and then back across Australia to the picturesque valley south of Sydney.
Their camp was only discovered when residents from the nearest town 20 miles away reported there were children living in the hills who did not attend school.
Stunned social workers found dirt-covered stoves and cooking facilities, rotten food in a fridge and a kangaroo sleeping on one of the children’s beds.
They were told how three brothers aged 14 and under tied their sister, 8, and niece, 13, naked to a tree.
The court documents revealed mouth swabs deduced five children had parents who were themselves “closely related” to one another while another five had parents who were “related”.
One resident from the town - the name of which has not been released - said people joked that if anyone came from that valley “you’d be inbred”.
The family has been given the new surname Colt to protect the identities of the children. Some have been placed with foster parents.
Another resident who saw them shopping told a Sydney newspaper: “They were never clean looking.
“There was nothing on the land where they lived. No electricity, no water - just scrub.”
#mirror.co.uk
Tragic: Emma Hopwood
