Woman denies abuse scam claim: court

Associated Press in Nine MSN News/June 17, 2005

A former commune member who alleges she was sexually abused as a child by a cult leader known as Little Pebble has denied scheming to inflict revenge on him.

William Kamm, 55, is on trial in the NSW District Court on four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse.

The then 15-year-old commune member accuses Kamm, also known as Little Pebble, of assaulting her on a number of occasions in 1993 near Nowra on the NSW south coast.

The alleged victim, who cannot be identified, rejected claims she was motivated by money in raising charges against Kamm.

The court was told in earlier evidence by the alleged victim that the self-proclaimed prophet claimed he sent and received regular messages from the Virgin Mary.

He had also appointed 12 "queens" from the women in his cult and 72 "princesses" to bear him children in a new holy era to come at the end of the world.

Asked by Crown Prosecutor Richard Herps why there was such a delay in raising complaints with police, the complainant said she left the commune in a state of confusion and that her father was ill and died in March 2001.

"My father was very ill and I didn't want to have to put him through the stress of what we're going through now," she told the court.

But under cross examination, defence barrister Greg Stanton SC suggested the girl did nothing about the alleged assaults until her family contacted a lawyer in 1998 about a property dispute with Kamm's community.

She then saw a sexual assault counsellor the same year.

The jury trial on Wednesday heard more than a dozen lurid letters which were sent from Kamm to the then-15-year-old in which he continually sought to deepen their "intimate relations".

Mr Stanton questioned why the letters were not destroyed, with the girl replying that her mother had kept them.

"You and your mother could use those letters to seek a revenge against Mr Kamm, was that part of the scheme?" Mr Stanton asked.

"There was no scheme," she replied.

She decided to detail her allegations in a formal statement to police on July 26, 2002.

But a few days earlier, she met a journalist from the Seven Network's Today Tonight program which was interested in airing her story.

"Did you see this as a way of making money?" Mr Stanton asked.

"No," she replied.

The girl said she did not discuss any payment initially but signed a contract to receive $2,500 after the story was filmed.

"By 2002, you had a particular sense of revulsion for Mr Kamm," Mr Stanton suggested.

"Yes," she replied.

"You hated him," Mr Stanton said.

"I did," she replied.

Mr Stanton also cast doubt on her memory and repeatedly asked why she could not remember details of meetings she had with her family solicitor or the sexual assault counsellor.

"You have sought in recent times to lie about this issue about how a queen could fall pregnant and your understanding of it when you were initially told," Mr Stanton said.

"I am not lying," she replied.

The trial continues on Friday.