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Girl was Kamm’s ‘queen’

Illawarra Mercury, Australia
June 15, 2005
Rebecaa Senescall
www.illawarramercury.com.au

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Wednesday June 15, 2005

When news spread through the Order of St Charbel religious community that their leader William Kamm was going to choose queens and princesses, the girls were filled with anticipation.

“We were all hoping that one of us would be a queen or somebody special in God’s eyes,” one of his former followers told Sydney District Court yesterday.

But the woman, who was chosen at 15 to be one of Kamm’s “queens”, told the court that in the months after she accepted the role Kamm repeatedly indecently assaulted her.

Kamm, otherwise known as the Little Pebble, is on trial for four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse with the girl, who had lived with her family on his Cambewarra property in 1993. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The woman, now 27, described how she had been chosen as one of 12 “queens” who would bear Kamm’s children – a new, pure race which would survive the end of the world.

“We believed (Kamm) was a prophet, a very holy man who was blessed by heaven, who was receiving messages for us from Mary and Jesus,” she said.

“Usually the messages would be about the world coming to an end … chastisements from heaven – tidal waves, earthquakes, things like that.

“Certain people would be chosen to live in the new era. The Little Pebble was going to be the last pope, and in the new era he was going to have many kingdoms, many wives and many different races and tribes.

“It was a very big honour to be chosen (as a queen). I wanted to make sure I was the right person for it and could carry out what was asked of me.”

Days after accepting the title, the girl – still a school student – visited Kamm in his office, the court heard. He had walked over to her, pressed his body onto her and kissed her using his tongue.

“I remember it because it was my first kiss,” she told the court.

In the weeks and months ahead, he had continued kissing her, rubbing her legs, fondling her breasts – and in one incident, masturbated her.

“I like the way you are my little girl,” Kamm wrote to her on a card, the court heard. Letters from Kamm to the girl, dated July to November 1993, were read to the court yesterday, in which Kamm referred to her as “my sweetest butterfly”, “love bug” and “wife number 3″.

The trial continues.