The couple had seven children together: Martha, Frank, Paula, Cherry, Rhonda, Betty, and Charlie, before moving to Victoria in the 1970s.
[3] The family grew to nearly 40 members ranging from grandparents to mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, nephews, and siblings, all engaging in various forms of incest.
School attendance was transient and happened only when welfare officers visited the family, and once there the children needed remedial teaching.
[1][3] The case has been described by Detective Chief Inspector Peter Yeomans as "like nothing I've ever seen," and was considered by many to be so shocking that, in a rare move, the New South Wales Children's Court allowed full details to be made public, albeit with all names changed to pseudonyms for the children's protection, including the family name of "Colt.
They relocated to New South Wales, thirty kilometers (20 miles) outside of the small town of Boorowa, three and a half hours southwest of Sydney.
[3][8] The police ultimately discovered nearly forty members of the family living under squalid conditions in tents and shacks.
After tracking the cell phone activities of Betty, police discovered text messages of a sexual nature sent to her son, Bobby.
[8] It has been said that there are difficulties in determining the guilt of particular offenders, arguing that behaviour exists on a moral continuum and the law is dichotomous in nature, being an 'absolute concept'.
"[10] A number of attempts by the elder family members to establish connections with the younger have been blocked by the courts.