Incestuous rape was ‘not a secret’ in the infamous Colt family with a 17-year-old allegedly sexually assaulted by her uncle told to keep her mouth shut, a judge has been told.
Frank Colt, a pseudonym, is facing a judge-alone trial in the Sydney District Court eight years after authorities discovered about 40 members of the clan living in squalor on a rural property in NSW.
The 50-year-old has pleaded not guilty to raping his then-17-year-old niece, Petra, in the back of his car in February 2010.
Incestuous rape was ‘not a secret’ in the infamous Colt family with a 17-year-old allegedly sexually assaulted by her uncle told to keep her mouth shut, a judge has been told (children of the Colt family pictured)
The court heard that the two – like many others in the family – shared the same father.
‘I tried to fight him off but he wouldn’t listen,’ Petra, also a pseudonym, told the court on Tuesday.
‘I was kicking and punching him, pulling his hair.’
The Crown alleges another uncle began sexually assaulting her when she was a child.
‘This was not a secret in the family,’ crown prosecutor Katharine Jeffreys said.
‘The complainant’s parents knew and … told her to keep her mouth shut.’
The court heard a recording of Petra telling police in 2018 that she, Frank and her mother shared a biological father – Tim Colt.
Tim was also father to her mother’s 11 other surviving children and all but one of her aunt’s six children.
The court heard a recording of the teenager telling police in 2018 that she, Frank and her mother Betty (pictured) shared a biological father – Tim Colt
The family moved across the country on several occasions, staying in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia at times, Ms Jeffreys said.
‘This family was a most unusual one.
‘This was a large family that lived together in relatively isolated locations and the complainant didn’t go to school.’
After the death of patriarch Tim Colt in Western Australia in 2009, Ms Jeffreys said the family spent 18 months at the rural property in NSW where the alleged sexual assault occurred.
Caravans and tents were the living quarters and no toilet or shower facilities were available.
Children spent the vast majority of their time on the property but some older adults including Frank would come and go, the court was told.
One night in February 2010, after Petra had a fight with her mother and went for a walk, she passed Frank’s car.
‘He grabbed me from behind and he threw me headfirst into the car,’ Petra said, detailing how she was held down as he forced her knees open.
Caravans and tents were the living quarters and no toilet or shower facilities were available
The incident lasted 10 to 15 minutes before Frank threw her and her clothes out of the car and called her an ‘ungrateful bitch and a pig’, Petra said.
Under cross-examination, the now-27-year-old said Tuesday was the first time she’d mentioned the specific slurs.
The court heard Petra told Victorian police in 2013 she was living in ‘a cult’ only to retract it later before NSW detectives.
‘I live in a cult, I never went to school,’ she told police during a visit alone to Swan Hill.
‘All my aunts, uncles, cousins have all been sleeping together.’
But after she returned home to Orange in NSW, she told police there she hadn’t been in her ‘right mind’ and had been ‘high on OxyContin’.
Petra on Tuesday said she didn’t recall withdrawing her original statement.
‘No, I didn’t say that,’ she said.
She denied making up the allegation that Frank raped her.
In August 2018, three years after breaking away from her family, she told police Frank raped her.
The trial resumes on Wednesday.
The children spent the vast majority of their time on the property but some older adults including Frank would come and go, the court was told ( a child of the Colt family is pictured)