Kamm's queen at 14

South Coast Register (Australia)/April 2, 2003
By Glenn Ellard

One of the 12 chosen queens of controversial religious leader William Kamm was taken to a hotel for regular sex sessions from the time she was just 14, Nowra Local Court heard yesterday.

The claim was made during a committal hearing into four charges each of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault on a child aged under 16, along with one charge of inciting a child under 16 to commit an act of indecency, laid against Kamm, also known as The Little Pebble .

The woman, who cannot be named, told the court she moved into Kamm's Order of St Charbel religious community at West Cambewarra shortly before her 12th birthday.

She said when she was 13 she received a letter from Kamm about being his spiritual wife, which she understood to mean she had been chosen to be one of Kamm's 12 queens within the community.

Being a queen meant she was not allowed to marry anyone else, and "we're not allowed to have sexual relationships with anyone, besides William", she told the court.

Evidence to the court also stated there were 72 princesses selected to be united sexually or spiritually with Kamm, although the woman said they were allowed to marry other men. She said there were also a number of baronesses.

When the woman turned 14 she was told it was time to have children with Kamm "before the new era".

She admitted being unwilling, which had repercussions.

"I would get letters saying I was not behaving myself the way a queen should, and that something would happen if I didn't follow the rules," she told the court.

She said she was first taken to a hotel in Figtree in July 1994, but after refusing Kamm's sexual advances she ended up sleeping on the couch.

The trip back to the West Cambewarra community was not a pleasant one, she said in court as Kamm was angry.

"He said he was very disappointed in me, and that I shouldn't have made him waste his money on me for nothing, and that I shouldn't do it again," she told the court.

The next day the woman's mother told her it was okay to have sex with Kamm "because it was God's will", the court was told.

Only a few days later the 14-year-old girl was back at the hotel with Kamm where, despite being "nervous" and "scared" she had sex with the religious leader that night, and again in the morning, the court heard.

The woman claimed that within months Kamm was taking the woman and her older sister to the hotel for sex, a practice which continued regularly until the woman fell pregnant in 1999.

There was no cross-examination of the woman, which is expected to take place when the committal hearing resumes on August 4, at which time other witnesses and another alleged victim are expected to give evidence.

On Monday there was an attempt by Kamm's legal representative Greg Stanton to delay the hearing, saying the NSW Crimes Commission was investigating other allegations raised by people living in the community about the same time, and he expected other charges to flow.

However the application to delay proceedings, and deal with them together with other matters that may arise, was rejected by Magistrate David O'Connor.