A New Mexico man, who allegedly encouraged his family to embrace nudity and told them that "sex among family" was OK, was arrested after being accused of molesting his children, authorities said.
His wife, the mother of the children, also was arrested Wednesday, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
The father claimed to be a nudist and encouraged his family, who live in Sandia Park near Albuquerque, to be naked. According to an arrest warrant affidavit, the family would meet in the morning and the father would "make a rule that everyone would come naked."
There were eight siblings, three of them children — ages 16, 14 and 12. The children were turned over to the care of relatives.
Each parent is charged with two counts of sexual penetration of a minor, several counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Names are being withheld by The Associated Press to avoid identification of victims.
Court documents say the couple told their children to get used to being touched for when they were married.
The 49-year-old man and his 45-year-old wife were arrested after one of the children confided in a relative that she was inappropriately touched regularly by her parents and encouraged to touch her siblings in the same manner. The girl said the abuse occurred for about four years.
She and the two minor siblings were interviewed by authorities and supported the story that they were being molested.
The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department is investigating whether the adult siblings were abused as children, sheriff's Sgt. Rachel Azbill said.
Deputies were collecting evidence, including computers, from the home in the mountains east of Albuquerque.
According to court documents, the father had talked via the Internet with a Texas family that was "very, very strong on incest." The father wanted his family to go down that path.
The girl told the family member her mother would inappropriately touch her children, but not as often as the father. She would comment on how the father touching his children was "healthy."
The couple also was arrested in 2009 for contributing to the delinquency of a minor after allegedly providing alcohol to the minor children, according to the sheriff's department.
