Depraved member of the Colt 'incest' family who molested his niece (who was also his SISTER) on a squalid outback farm is found guilty of rape
- Frank Colt, 51, was found guilty of sexually assaulting his niece/half-sister
- District Court Judge accepted his victim's 'powerful and credible' evidence
- Petra Colt was 17 when she was attacked in the back of her relative's car
- 38 members of the family were found living in squalour eight years' ago
A member of the incestuous Colt family has been found guilty of raping his niece - who was also his half-sister - in the years before authorities found the clan living in a squalid bush camp.
Frank Colt, 51, was one of eight family members arrested in April 2018 as part of a long-running child sex abuse investigation, sparked by the discovery of nearly 40 relatives living in squalid circumstances in 2012.
The New South Wales District Court found on Tuesday that Colt attacked his relative, known by the pseudonym Petra, when she was 17, in the back seat of his car, during a visit to the family farm near Yass.
The victim's evidence was 'simply and matter-of-factly put' and was powerful and credible given her upbringing and rudimentary education, Judge Gina O'Rourke said.
An unidentified Colt family member is arrested during police raids in 2018
'She did not try to gild the lily and attribute other acts to the accused,' Judge O'Rourke said.
Colt maintained his right to silence throughout the investigation and trial, with his barrister arguing the sexual intercourse never happened.
Share this article
Colt, who has the same father as his victim, was remanded in custody ahead of his sentencing.
He had faced a single rape charge, with others dropped.
As of early last year Colt had been bailed to a backpacker hostel in Glebe, in Sydney's inner west.
Police had famously found dozens of members of the family living on a farm in remote Boorowa, New South Wales in 2012, after a conversation was overheard about family sex in a school playground.
FIlthy: Police famously found dozens of members of the family living on a farm with no tents or showers in remote New South Wales in 2012
Authorities took a dozen children into care and police investigations have continued for close to a decade.
The itinerant family were well-known throughout country New South Wales and South Australia.
The family have been given the pseudonym 'Colt' by the court.
Other members of the clan remain before the courts.
COLT CASE: INSIDE THE CAMP THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD
A three-person tent where members of the 38-strong Colt family lived up until July 2012
The discovery of generations of an allegedly incestuous family living in squalid conditions in rural New South Wales eight years ago revolted Australia and stunned the world.
The 38-member 'Colt' clan was found crammed into rundown caravans, sheds and tents in the state's south in mid-2012 after a conversation about family sex was overheard in a school playground.
Authorities removed 12 illiterate and malnourished children from the camp, including five of matriarch Betty Colt's children, and placed them into care. All but one were inbred.
It was described at the time as the worst case of incest uncovered in Australia.
One female police officer reportedly told a colleague: 'I'll never get over what I saw there'.
