HERTFORD, N.C., May 14 (UPI) -- Six brothers sexually abused a girl for a decade, starting when she was 4, investigators in North Carolina say.
Their parents have also been charged with felony child abuse. Perquimans County Sheriff Eric Tilley said that John Jackson, 65, and Nita Jackson, 54, knew their sons were molesting the girl and did nothing about it.
The brothers, Eric Jackson, 27, Jon, 25, Matthew, 23, Nathaniel, 21, Benjamin, 19, and Aaron, 18, were arrested last week. The parents are free on $15,000 bail.
Dan Horn, elder at Hope Baptist Church in Wake Forest, N.C., told the Virginian-Pilot that Eric Jackson told him of the abuse in 2012. Horn said Jackson wanted "to walk in the light and confess his sin to the authorities."
"He sinned seriously," Horn said. "It was an evil that needed to be exposed."
Tilley said the family moved to Colorado after learning of the police investigation, but then agreed to return and face the charges.
Former neighbors in Perquimans County said the family lived in an old house there for about 10 years, homeschooling their children. Eric Jackson, at the time of his arrest, owned a piano tuning business called Redeeming the Tune, near Raleigh, N.C.
"They were a secretive bunch," said Curtis Trueblood, who owns a property next door.
The brothers were being held on bonds of up to $150,000.
