Cult leader jailed for more sexual abuse

The Age, Australia


August 24, 2007

Self-proclaimed prophet William Kamm will spend the next six years behind bars after a second offence involving the seduction of a teenage girl.

The 56-year-old cult leader, known to his followers as the Little Pebble, showed the girl letters "from the Virgin Mary" telling her it was God's will she sleep with him to help him repopulate the earth with his mystical seed.

Kamm, who claims he can communicate directly with God and receives messages from the Virgin on the 13th day of every month, is already serving a minimum three-and-a-half-year term for sex offences.

His non-parole period was on Friday more than doubled for an almost identical offence.

NSW District Court Judge Peter Berman said Kamm abused his position as the leader of his self-proclaimed cult, the Order of Saint Charbel, to satisfy his own desires.

His victim wrote "poignant" letters to the Virgin Mary, to which Kamm responded with orders that she sleep with him, and signing off as the mother of Christ.

The girl, who moved into the religious community near Nowra with her family at a very young age, was taken to a motel at nearby Figtree, and sometimes to Kamm's room in the commune, and forced to have sex with him.

Kamm told her girl and her parents she was chosen by the Virgin to help him repopulate the earth with his "mystical seed" to create a master race for the new era.

Her mother, who remains a follower and lives in the Cambewarra community, was so devoted she consented to Kamm having sex with two of her daughters, Judge Berman said.

The sexual relationship continued from the time the girl was 14 until she was 19, when she became pregnant and gave birth to his child.

It wasn't until she left the community in 2002 that the victim realised she had, in fact, been abused on a weekly or fortnightly basis, she said.

"William Kamm has taken my innocence, my childhood, my independence and my virginity," she said in her victim impact statement, read to the court.

"I believe William Kamm should be put away for a long time so he can't hurt any more young girls like he can hurt me.

"I believe he is a danger to young girls and their families. I don't wish the pain I went through upon anybody in this world."

More than a dozen of Kamm's followers crowded the courtroom for a glimpse of their leader, whom they believe to be God, unflinching as Judge Berman condemned his beliefs as deserving "no respect at all".

"It's difficult to understand how anyone could have been taken in by the offender but clearly many were," Judge Berman said.

"It's remarkable that although many believed him to be God and that the writings came directly from the Virgin Mary nobody thought to ask ... why he was incapable of spelling simple words correctly.

"This was clearly not the work of an all powerful God."

Kamm, known to his followers as the "Little Pebble", was impassive throughout.

In addition to his current sentence, against which he lost an appeal last month, Kamm will now serve a seven-and-a-half-year non-parole period with a maximum term of 10 years.

He will be eligible for release on April 13, 2013.

Kamm's lawyer, Greg Stanton, said his client contrition or remorse, and indicated he would lodge an immediate appeal.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Cult-leader-jailed-for-more-sexual-abuse/2007/08/24/1187462512116.html