Little Pebble 'molested' girl

The Australian/June 16, 2005
By David King

A 15-year-old schoolgirl was to bear 17 children to a self-styled religious leader who told his followers he would be the final pope before the end of the world.

The woman, now in her 20s, told the New South Wales District Court yesterday that William Kamm, 55, had molested her in 1993 soon after he had chosen her to be one of his "spiritual brides".

Mr Kamm, 55, known to his followers as Little Pebble, is charged with four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one count of sexual intercourse in circumstances of aggravation.

In the early 1990s, the girl and her family joined Mr Kamm's religious group, the Order of St Charbel, and went to live at his compound in Cambewarra, near Nowra on the NSW south coast.

Mr Kamm, who the family believed could speak to the Virgin Mary, chose the child to be one of 12 queens and 72 princesses who would produce the "new tribe" after the end of the world.

"We believed he was a prophet, a very holy man," the woman said yesterday.

"The world was going to come to an end and there would be lots of chastisements, as in tidal waves, earthquakes."

The woman said her family had been proud when she was chosen as one of Mr Kamm's queens.

"I understood it to be an extremely important role. We were all hoping one of us would be a queen, someone special in God's eyes."

The girl alleges that in 1993 Mr Kamm kissed, groped and digitally penetrated her.

Prosecutor Richard Herps tended at least 20 letters of correspondence between Mr Kamm and the then 15-year-old. In the letters Mr Kamm spoke of his love for the child and his desire to spend time alone with her.

He wrote that she would "receive 17 children from my seed" and live with her in a castle in Germany when the "new era" arrived.

The letters also urged the child not to tell Mr Kamm's wife that she had been chosen as his queen.

"Bettina is not aware of any of this and would die if she knew," one of Mr Kamm's letters said.

In some of the letters, Mr Kamm inquired about the child's attitude towards sex. He told her "we can make love any time but you cannot fall pregnant yet."

The trial continues.