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Kamm in Court
Updated 02-07-05
William Kamms long awaited court case began last Tuesday the 14th of June 2005 at the Sydney District Court. At this point in time I cannot and shall not make any comment about this court case. What shall be placed on these pages will be extracts from various newspapers and links to articles about the case.
Please use these links to access the various articles on this page.
from the Illawarra Mercury.
Pebble plan to spawn a 'new race'
By REBECCA SENESCALL
June 15, 2005
A NOWRA religious cult leader, accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a young female follower, had believed the Virgin Mary chose him to spawn a new race that would survive the end of the world, a jury has heard.
The girl was just two months past her 15th birthday when she accepted William "Little Pebble" Kamm's invitation to become one of his 12 "mystical wives". She believed she would become pregnant "spiritually" - perhaps through a hug.
And her parents rejoiced and encouraged the marriage, not thinking it involved any sex.
Kamm is accused of four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse with the girl, while she was living in Kamm's Order of St Charbel community in Cambewarra in 1993.
The Crown alleges that Kamm kissed, fondled and groped the girl in his office and in her bedroom - and that once, sitting in his car, Kamm penetrated the girl's vagina with his finger.
At the start of his Sydney District Court trial yesterday, Kamm pleaded not guilty to all charges. His lawyer, Gregory Stanton, told the jury that the girl - who waited nine years before coming forward to police - made the allegations for financial gain.
He told the jury they would hear evidence of a $2500 exclusive interview deal with Channel Seven's Today Tonight program, made at the time the girl approached police.
In his opening statement yesterday, Crown Prosecutor Richard Herps told the jury that Kamm believed he received messages directly from Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, on the 13th day of each month. His revelations told of the coming of a new era in world history, and cataclysmic events which only Kamm's community would survive.
The girl's family, who had followed Kamm since the 1980s, sold their house at Katoomba and moved to Kamm's community in 1991 - about a year before Kamm, calling himself the "new Abraham", selected 12 female followers to be his "queens" and another 72 as his "princesses".
The trial continues.
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from The Sydney Morning Herald
Little Pebble in court on sex assault charges
By Leonie Lamont
June 15, 2005
He said he was the New Abraham, in direct communication with the Virgin Mary. His mission was to bring a new race onto the Earth, the children conceived through his "mystical marriages" with 84 designated princesses and queens.
Yesterday his lawyer told the jury in the trial of the religious leader William Kamm that they might be "troubled, offended, compromised and utterly bemused", and they might think the "mishmash of theology and spiritual mayhem" at Kamm's religious community was "utterly insane". But it was not his religious beliefs that were on trial, Kamm's lawyer, Greg Stanton, said.
District Court Judge John Williams also told the jury "criminal courts aren't courts of morals" and they must take a "cold and clinical look at the evidence" to determine whether Kamm, 55, who also goes by the name The Little Pebble, was guilty.
He faces four charges of aggravated indecent assault and another of aggravated sexual intercourse against one of those "queens", a 15-year-old girl.
For the Crown, Richard Herps detailed the charges on the indictment, which included claims of passionate tongue kissing and groping and fondling the girl's breasts and leg. The aggravated sexual intercourse charge related to Kamm allegedly inserting his finger into her vagina when they were seated in his car. The incidents were alleged to have occurred between July and November 1993.
Mr Herps said there was correspondence, with petitions to Mary, mother of God, where she voiced doubts about this mystical marriage. He said her petitions were answered by Kamm, and the correspondence made it clear the marriage would continue because it was the "will of Heaven".
Mr Herps said that because of circumstances, including the girl's father's illness, a formal complaint was not made to the police until 2002.
But Mr Stanton said the motive for the complaint, made nearly a decade after the alleged incidents, was financial gain. He said the young woman had received $2500 from the TV show Today Tonight for an exclusive interview about Kamm, and a third-party broker had received $5000.
He said whatever physical contact occurred was not indecent and denied there had been any digital penetration.
The hearing continues.
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from The Daily Telegraph
Leader kissed girl chosen to create new nation: court told
Source: AAP
June 15, 2005
A self-styled religious leader passionately kissed a 15-year-old girl whom he told had been divinely chosen as one of his many queens to spawn a new nation, a Sydney court was told today.
William Kamm, 55, also known as "The Little Pebble", is standing trial on four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent in a the NSW District Court.
The alleged assault took place on the NSW south coast in 1993.
The alleged victim, who cannot be identified, today told how Kamm would receive monthly divine messages from the Virgin Mary.
"We believed he was a prophet, a very holy man, a man who was blessed by heaven," she told the court.
"He was going to be the last pope and in the new era he was going to have many kingdoms and many wives and many different races and tribes."
The girl and her family rejoiced at the "great honour" of being chosen but she said they believed it was only a spiritual relationship and not physical.
Sometime later Kamm pressed himself against the girl in his private office, the court heard.
"He held my body and he kissed me with his tongue," she told the court.
AAP
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from the Illawarra Mercury
Girl was Kamm's 'queen'
By REBECCA SENESCALL
June 16, 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.
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from The Australian
Teen 'petitioned Virgin Mary for help'
Source: AAP
June 16, 2005
CONFUSED and frightened, a 15-year-old girl petitioned the Virgin Mary for help in dealing with her "mystical marriage" to a man since charged with sexually assaulting her, a Sydney court has been told.
William Kamm, 55, is facing trial in the New South Wales District Court on four counts of aggravated indecent assault, and one of aggravated sexual intercourse.
The then teenager 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 complainant today told the court how she wrote to Mary through a diary held by Kamm, and he would write down answers the Mother of God allegedly told him.
"I am so mixed up, confused and frightened," she wrote to Mary.
Kamm had previously told her Mary had chosen her to be one of his 12 "queens" or spiritual wives, and she agreed.
She said today she had other crushes on boys and the celebrity River Phoenix, but the diary answers urged her to put them aside as temptations from the Devil.
"I wasn't 100 per cent and I was asking for more devotion and more love for Kamm," she told the court today. Diary entries written in Kamm's handwriting, supposedly from Mary, repeatedly said that her love would grow deeper for her "spouse" – especially when they became intimate.
"Be assured dear child that your love for your spouse will grow very deep," the reply said.
Kamm denies the charges and a jury trial continues.
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from The Advertiser
Virgin Mary gave approval, court told
Source: AAP
June 16, 2005
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from Daily Telegraph
Court told of Pebble girl letters
By Nicolette CASELLA
16-06-05
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from The Sydney Morning Herald
Alleged victim contacted TV before police
By Geesche Jacobsen
June 17, 2005
A woman who says she was sexually assaulted by the leader of a religious community when she was 15 has been asked if she went public with her complaints aware she "could make some money out of it".
She was also asked whether she delayed reporting the incidents, which she says began in 1993, to police until after her family had resolved a claim for compensation from William Kamm. Mr Kamm is facing four charges of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse in the District Court.
The woman, who cannot be named, said she had received $2500 from Channel Seven's Today Tonight program for an interview about the allegations.
She had contacted the program two days before she first spoke to police in mid-2002, the woman said in court yesterday.
The defence barrister, Greg Stanton, asked: "You agreed to give your information for a monetary reward?" "That's not how I saw it," the alleged victim replied.
"You could have given the interview without the reward," Mr Stanton said. "I didn't think about it at the time . Look, I did the program and I was given the money."
The woman said she had seen a solicitor and a sexual assault counselor in 1998, shortly after the family left the religious community, when her parents were trying to settle a financial dispute for $60,000 with Mr Kamm.
Mr Stanton asked her if she had agreed not to lay a complaint against Mr Kamm until after the question of the family's compensation was resolved. The woman said she could not remember the conversations with the lawyer or the counselor.
"In the years 1994 to 1998 you were aware of newspaper reports about sexual assault among members of the community," Mr Stanton said. "You didn't go to the police at once?"
"No . I was still very mixed up," the woman replied.
The trial continues.
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from Nine MSN
Woman denies abuse scam claim: court
07:44 AEST Source: AAP
Fri Jun 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 counselor 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 counselor.
"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.
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from ABC News Online
Witness in Little Pebble trial rejects money making claims
Friday June 17, 2005
A woman who says a NSW south coast religious figure sexually assaulted her 12 years ago, has denied publicising the allegations for financial gain.
The man, William Kamm, also known as Little Pebble, is standing trial in the District Court.
The 27-year-old woman says in 1993 she was sexually and indecently assaulted by Kamm at his religious community near Nowra on the south coast.
The then 15-year-old and her family were part of the community, and she told the court in Sydney that the assaults occurred after she was chosen to be one of Kamm's 12 "queens".
Under cross-examination from Kamm's lawyers, the woman agreed she was paid $2,500 for an interview with a Channel Seven current affairs program in 2002.
She told the court she had the first meeting with the reporter before she made a statement to police, but has denied she was seeking to make money.
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from South Coast Register
Pebble bride's anguish
Story: Glenn Ellard and AAP
Friday, 17 June 2005
(Photo courtesy: AAP Image/ Milan Scepanovic)
Mother Mary comfort me
CONFUSED and frightened, a 15-year-old girl petitioned the Virgin Mary for help in dealing with her "mystical marriage" to controversial religious leader William Kamm, also known as The Little Pebble.
"I am so mixed up, confused and frightened," she wrote to Mary in a diary held by Kamm, a Sydney court was told yesterday as a jury heard evidence into charges of four counts of aggravated indecent assault, and one of aggravated sexual intercourse laid against Kamm.
The 55-year-old leader of the Order of St Charbel community at West Cambewarra has pleaded not guilty to all charges involving the girl in incidents alleged to have occurred in 1993 when the girl was living as part of the religious community.
The girl was just 15 when she was told her destiny was to help bring forth a new race as one of 12 mystical wives of Kamm, the court was told.
At first the girl thought she would become pregnant spiritually, through an act as simple as a hug or "holy embrace", but it soon became apparent that sex was to be involved, the court was told.
While being selected as a queen was "a very big honour", the girl said she became uneasy when the true nature of the expected relationship emerged.
This led to questions directed to Mary
"I wasn't 100 per cent and I was asking for more devotion and more love for Kamm," she told the court.
Diary entries written in Kamm's handwriting, supposedly from Mary, repeatedly said that her love would grow deeper for her "spouse" - especially when they became intimate.
"Be assured dear child that your love for your spouse will grow very deep," the reply said.
Another reply written in the book stated, "You have permission for an intimate union with your husband at any time but remember to be discreet until the time of the revelation."
And while the Virgin Mary supposedly gave permission for the 15-year-old to be intimate with Kamm, the diary answers urged her to put aside crushes on other boys and actor River Phoenix as temptations from the Devil.
"We believed that Mary was writing from his hand," the girl told the court.
She said her family was pleased she had been chosen as a queen and considered it a "great honour".
"We believed he was a prophet, a very holy man, a man who was very blessed by heaven," she told the court.
"He was going to be the last pope and in the new era he was going to have many kingdoms and many wives and many different races and tribes."
More than a dozen highly sexual love letters from Kamm were read out in court in which Kamm repeatedly made clear his intentions to "make love" to her and "ravish" her.
"I intend to arouse you some more because I wish to seduce you to love me deeply," he wrote on August 20, 1993.
The complainant also gave evidence that Kamm kissed her using his tongue on numerous occasions, fondled her body during car trips and once parked the car and penetrated her with a finger.
The girl had written a number of letters in reply to Kamm but told the court she felt confused about what was happening.
Although Kamm repeatedly instructed the girl to keep details of their relationship secret he maintained that it was ordained by God.
"No, I do not think you are stupid because you love me - I am very happy because God placed this love in you for me," he wrote in another letter.
Kamm wrote that being holy didn't mean sitting in the corner praying without having any fun.
"Publicly I am always careful and once behind closed doors the Dr Jekyll and Hyde comes out," he wrote.
Kamm's letters also dubbed the girl "my sweetest butterfly", "love bug" and "wife number three".
The trial continues today.
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from Illawarra Mercury
Court hears girl wanted Kamm's baby
By REBECCA SENESCALL
18th June 2005
A 15-YEAR-OLD girl, who police claim was repeatedly assaulted by Nowra cult leader William Kamm, had asked to sleep with him and have his baby, a Sydney District Court jury heard yesterday.
But she had no idea that sleeping with a man - or falling pregnant - had anything to do with sex.
"You may not believe this but I was brought up in a very strict Catholic family and I didn't have any sex education," she told the court yesterday.
"I didn't know what sleeping together in those terms meant. I was so naive, I thought you slept together and fell pregnant. And with William I believed it was something like immaculate conception, where we would embrace and fall pregnant."
Kamm, also known as the Little Pebble, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one count of aggravated sexual intercourse with the girl in 1993 when she was 15.
Just before the alleged incidents, the girl had accepted a role as one of Kamm's 12 "mystical" wives.
Kamm had told his followers at his Order of St Charbel property in Cambewarra he was receiving messages from the Virgin Mary.
Under cross examination yesterday, the alleged victim, now 27, agreed with Kamm's lawyer Gregory Stanton that Kamm never forced her to have sex with him, had not stopped her when she left the community, and had not asked her to return. But a year after leaving the order - and two years after Kamm had allegedly kissed, fondled and masturbated her - the girl wrote to Kamm, saying she would like to be friends.
"I have nothing against the community or the mission and I support it 100 per cent," she wrote in the letter, dated November 1995.
The woman told the court: "I still cared about him, I still revered him. I desperately wanted to believe that he was seeing Mary."
She returned to the order in 1997 but not as Kamm's mystical wife.
When asked why she returned to a place where she had allegedly been assaulted, she told the court: "The real world isn't that wonderful compared to the community. The community had... a very loving environment. I wanted the spirituality of the community in my life."
By 1998, the woman was asked to leave the order because she wasn't conforming to its rules, which included wearing skirts rather than trousers while on the property.
The trial continues.
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from Illawarra Mercury
Mystical marriage honour for mum
Court told of love for Kamm
By REBECCA SENESCALL
21-06-05
A MOTHER has told a Sydney jury that she felt honoured when her 15-year-old daughter was chosen to be "mystically married" to Nowra cult leader William Kamm,
"We understood that Mr Kamm was a very holy man," the woman told Sydney District Court yesterday.
"We loved him and we embraced his mission.
"To perform something that would secure the church for the future was considered a great honour."
Kamm, 55, also known as the Little Pebble, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one count of aggravated sexual intercourse with the 15-year-old girl in 1993, when her family belonged to his Order of St Charbel community at Cambewarra.
The girl's mother said yesterday that Kamm had first told his followers about the concept of "mystical marriage in 1991.
But two years later, Kamm announced that he had received "the holy shining thing" - God's seed from heaven - and would select 12 "queens" and 72 "princesses" who would bear him "an immaculate race" of babies for the new era.
"There was to be no sex involved," the girl's mother told the court. "All that was necessary was an embrace, as well as an acceptance by the girl that she wanted to have a child."
During the past four days, the girl, now 27, has told the court that she was kissed, fondled and masturbated by Kamm in the months after she accepted her role as his "queen".
The court heard yesterday petitions that the girl's parents had written in September 1993, thanking the Virgin Mary for selecting their daughter as one of Kamm's queens.
"We are as little children, not knowing or understanding very much, so we place our hands in yours," the girl's parents wrote.
The trial continues.
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from Illawarra Mercury
Father's apology letter to Kamm
By REBECCA SENESCALL
22-06-05
YEARS after a 15-year-old girl allegedly was sexually assaulted by Nowra cult leader William Kamm, the girl's parents wrote him a letter, apologising for causing him embarrassment.
Yesterday, a Sydney District Court jury heard a section of a resignation letter which the girl's parents sent Kamm in 1998, just before they left his Order of St Charbel Community in Cambewarra,
"I realise because of many incidents over the last four years, our family appears to have emerged as a constant source of embarrassment to the order," the girls father wrote.
"(It is) a situation which is to be regretted,"
Kamm, 55, also known as the Little Pebble, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse with the girl in 1993, in the months after he chose the girl to be one of his 12 "mystical wives",
The girl's mother told the Jury yesterday that she hadn't known of "anything untoward" between her daughter and Kanim in 1993. She presumed his letters to her concerned religious matters.
When the girl decided in 1994 she no longer wanted to be Kamm's wife. her mother was so distressed that she sent - via Kainm - a plea to the Virgin Mary for a suggestion of anything she could do to convince Her daughter of "the soundness of God's plans".
Kamm's response, which he claimed was from Mary, told the woman that her daughter needed to pray for enlightenment and "reject the human logic which now tempts her."
The girl's mother told the court yesterday that by the end of 1997, she and her husband privately had decided to leave the order.
Her husband was beginning to suspect that the messages Kamm claimed to receive from the Virgin Mary were fraudulent.
Kamni had also announced from the pulpit that her family was a disgrace, she said.
In 1998, when she and her husband were on the verge of leaving, her daughter gave her a bundle of the letters Kamm had sent her in 1993.
"I was absolutely shocked," she said yesterday.
While aware of mainstream Catholic teaching, she didn't know when she joined Kamm's community that his order was outside the mainstream church.
"We just thought it was extra conservative. We didn't look for faults," she said.
The trial continues.
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from Illawarra Mercury
Pebble TV deal papers missing
Contract probably shredded
By REBECCA SENESCALL
23-06-05
A TELEVISION network has told a Sydney court it most likely shredded records of a deal it made with a girl who claimed Nowra cult leader William Kamm assaulted her.
Police had been asking the network to hand over the records for the past two years.
A Sydney District Court jury heard yesterday that a lawyer for the Seven Network was unable to find the contract the girl signed in 2002, when she was paid $2500 to give an interview for the Today Tonight program detailing her allegations of sexual interference by Kamm when she was aged 15.
The girl spoke to the television network before taking her complaints to the police.
At the start of his trial last week, Kamm pleaded not guilty to four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse with the girl in 1993, in the months after she had been selected as one of his 12 "mystical wives".
Yesterday, the police officer leading the investigation, child protection and sex crimes squad officer Detective Senior Constable Lorenda Barber, told the jury she had tried to question the television presenter who struck the interview deal with the girl, but he had decided on legal advice not to make a police statement.
Snr Const Barber had repeatediy asked the network to hand over the contract. The network assured her it would retrieve it from the archives, she said.
When Kamm's lawyer Gregory Stanton told her yesterday the network's advice was that the contract was probably shredded when the network moved offices, Sen Const Barber said it was the first she had heard of it.
Mr Stanton told the jury that as part of the television deal, male friend of the girl - who had not been part of the community - was paid $5000 by the network for helping set up the interview, bringing to them Kamm's head "on a plate".
Mr Stanton also raised in court yesterday the names of others the girl and her mother had spoken to before deciding to take the girl's complaints to the police.
During cross-examination the girl's mother agreed that she had been put in contact with Nowra police by disgruntled former members of Kamm's community.
She also agreed with Mr Stanton that since leaving the community in 1998, she had been seeking money from Kamm that she believed he owed her.
The trial will continue next week.
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from Illawarra Mercury
Mystical marriage honour for mum
Court told of love for Kamm
By REBECCA SENESCALL
28-06-05
A MOTHER has told a Sydney jury that she felt honoured when her 15-year-old daughter was chosen to be "mystically married" to Nowra cult leader William Kamm.
"We understood that Mr Kamm was a very holy man," the woman told Sydney District Court yesterday.
"We loved him and we embraced his mission.
"To perform something that would secure the church for the future was considered a great honour."
Kamm, 55, also known as the Little Pebble, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one count of aggravated sexual intercourse with the 15-year-old girl in 1993, when her family belonged to his Order of St Charbel community at Cambewarra.
The girl's mother said yesterday that Kamm had first told his followers about the concept of "mystical marriage" in 1991.
But two years later, Kamm announced that he had received "the holy shining thing" - God's seed from heaven - and would select 12 "queens" and 72 "princesses" who would bear him "an immaculate race" of babies for the new era.
"There was to be no sex involved," the girl's mother told the court. "All that was necessary was an embrace, as well as an acceptance by the girl that she wanted to have a child."
During the past four days, the girl, now 27, has told the court that she was kissed, fondled and masturbated by Kamm in the months after she accepted her role as his "queen".
The court heard yesterday petitions that the girl's parents had written in September 1993, thanking the Virgin Mary for selecting their daughter as one of Kamm's queens.
"We are as little children, not knowing or understanding very much, so we place our hands in yours," the girl's parents wrote.
The trial continues.
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from Illawarra Mercury
Young women back Kamm
By REBECCA SENESCALL
29-06-05
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from Illawarra Mercury
Ignore suspicion: judge
By REBECCA SENESCALL
30-06-05
A SYDNEY jury has been told to ignore its suspicion that a young woman who gave evidence in defence of Nowra cult leader William Kamm on Tuesday was being coached in court by another witness in the back of the courtroom.
Sydney District Court Judge John Williams, who spoke to the jury yesterday afternoon in response to a note given to him by a juror, said there was no evidence that any coaching had taken place between the two women.
"What was observed may or may not have been 'coaching' as expressed in the note," Judge Williams said.
"It may have been something completely innocent and accidental.
"It would be quite wrong of you to hold anything that occurred against the accused."
Kamm, also known as the Little Pebble, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one count of aggravated sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl in 1993. The girl had been chosen by Kamm to be one of his 12 "mystical wives" in his Order of St Charbel religious community at Cambewarra. The two young women who appeared in court on Tuesday were the first witnesses called by Kamm in his defence.
Judge Williams told the jury yesterday that "as a matter of logic" it was "extremely difficult for one person to coach another in court".
He reminded the jury that the evidence given by each witness related to different topics and there was "no cross-relationship" between their evidence. Judge Williams said whatever had happened in the courtroom during the witnesses' evidence was irrelevant to the case and was not Kamm's fault.
"He is separated physically from the witnesses as well as from persons in the public gallery," Judge Williams said. "He has no control over what those persons may or may not do."
The trial continues.
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from Illawarra Mercury
Kamm too sick for court
01-07-05
NOWRA cult leader William Kamm was too ill to face Sydney District Court on child sex charges yesterday.
Defence lawyer Gregory Stanton gave the court a certificate from a doctor, stating that Kamm was not well enough to attend court yesterday or today.
Kamm, also known as the Little Pebble, has pleaded not guilty to, four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one count of aggravated sexual intercourse in 1993 with a 15-year-old girl he had chosen as one of his 12 "mystical wives" at his Order of St Charbel religious community in Cambewarra.
The trial has been adjourned to Monday.
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from Sydney Morning Herald
Call to convict cult leader of sex assault on teen
04-07-05
A jury has been urged to convict the leader of a NSW religious commune for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl more than a decade ago.
William Kamm, known to his followers as The Little Pebble, is standing trial in the NSW District Court on four charges of indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent.
The trial before Judge John Williams resumed today with prosecutor Richard Herps calling for a guilty verdict on all five charges relating to incidents at the commune near Nowra on the NSW south coast in 1993.
Mr Herps told the jury the 55-year-old leader had himself corroborated three of the five charges through writing explicitly sexual letters to the girl.
The prosecutor quoted from various letters which were "of a sexual connotation" and "overt and quite explicit" in content.
A letter of September 28, 1993, could be linked to claims that Kamm masturbated girls in his car at Nowra, Mr Herps said.
"... I could have made love to you there and then but it was not the time or place," Kamm wrote to the girl.
In another letter, Kamm said: "I hope I didn't stir you up too much by touching your leg. You have such sexy legs." Mr Herps said the defence never suggested that Kamm's highly sexualised letters had some other meaning. "It's in fact a picture drawn for you by the accused," Mr Herps said. Kamm's defence barrister Greg Stanton is yet to make his closing submission.
The trial continues.
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from ABC Radio
Sect member in court on sex abuse charges
ABC Radio News
04-07-05
Lawyers for a New South Wales south coast religious figure have told a District Court jury he cannot be judged for writing a series of "morally wrong" letters to a 15-year-old girl he is accused of assaulting.
Prosecutors say the letters support the allegations of abuse.
The now 27-year-old woman says that in 1993 she was sexually and indecently assaulted by William Kamm, who she knew as Little Pebble.
Kamm's District Court trial in Sydney has been read letters the pair exchanged while she and her family were living at his religious community, outside of Nowra.
In closing submissions, Kamm's lawyer told the jury that while the defence does not challenge that the letters are sexually overt and written by an "odd little man", they only show what he wanted to happen with the girl, not anything that actually occurred.
The trial will continue tomorrow.
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from Illawarra Mercury
Kamm simply an: `odd little man'
By REBECCA SENESCALL
05-07-05
NOWRA cult leader William Kamm might have been an "odd little man" who wrote overtly sexual letters to a 15-year-old girl.
But his writings did not prove anything more than a desire for sexual contact which was "never crystallised". Kamm's lawyer Gregory Stanton told a jury yesterday.
The Crown and defence took turns to address the jury as Kamm's trial neared its end.
Kamm, 55, also known as Little Pebble, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one count of aggravated sexual intercourse with the girl in 1993, after he chose her as one of his 12 "mystical wives".
At the start of the trial, the girl, who cannot be identified, told the court Kamm repeatedly kissed her using his tongue, fondled her breasts, rubbed her leg and once put his hand under her skirt and masturbated her.
During the period in which the assaults allegedly took place, Kamm sent her a series of love letters, which Crown prosecutor Richard Herps told the jury were overtly - and at times explicitly - sexual.
Mr Herps read portions of Kamm's letters referring to his desire to "make love" to the girl.
"Do you think about us making love, do you desire it?" he wrote in July 1993.
I have been thinking about it. You have such a sexy- body. I believe we should wait til at least the end of next year to conceive a child ... that does not mean that we can't make love."
But Mr Stanton said although Kamm did not challenge the letters' "sexual flavour", or that he had written them, they did not prove any sexual assaults had taken place.
"Don't use these letters to convict him simply because you think it inappropriate or lewd for him to be writing these letters to a girl of 15," Mr Stanton told the jury.
"That is not the offence."
Mr Stanton said the letters constituted a denial any sexual contact took place between the girl and Kamm. They were "the expression of someone speaking about what they hoped would happen in future", rather than describing past events.
He urged the jury not to judge Kamm or his community for their "downright strange" beliefs.
"Whatever you may think of him, he is not to be judged because he represents in this society something of an odd or peculiar figure," Mr Stanton said.
"He is not here to suffer and endure a judgement as to his religious conviction, as to the oddity of his beliefs and teachings or a condemnation, either in ridicule or in serious judgement to him and those that follow him."
The Crown described Kamm as leader of the Cambewarra religious order, whose followers believed he received messages from the Virgin Mary. The girl had submitted to Kamm's alleged behaviour because she believed it was "the will of heaven" for her to be Kamm's wife, Mr Herps said.
Closing addresses are expected to finish today.
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from Sydney Morning Herald
Jury set to decide cult leader's fate
Malcolm Brown and AAP
05-07-05
A jury has retired to consider its verdict on sexual assault charges against the religious leader known as "Little Pebble".
William Kamm, 53, has stood trial in the NSW District Court on four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse against a 15-year-old girl near Nowra on the NSW South Coast.
The girl's claims dated back to 1993 when she was living in Kamm's religious commune at Cambewarra.
Kamm has pleaded not guilty before Judge John Williams.
Kamm had been disadvantaged by the length of time - nine years - before a complaint was made, the judge told the court.
Judge Williams, summing up, said Kamm had also been disadvantage by lack of specifics, such as exact dates, in the allegations.
Had the alleged victim - 15 at the time of the alleged offences in 1993 - and her mother made allegations immediately, Kamm would have been able to check the information, Judge Williams said.
The offences were alleged to have occurred in a two-month period in 1993. After 12 years, Kamm had to try to account for every day of that period.
By the time the complaint was made to the police in 2002, some of the records which would have been available at the time of the alleged offences, such as attendance records of the girl at a technical college at Bomaderry, had been destroyed.
He said that given the inability of Kamm to properly test the information alleged, it would be dangerous to make a guilty finding on the uncorroborated evidence of the alleged victim - now a married woman with children.
A series of love letters Kamm had written the girl did not in themselves confirm any of the allegations.
Judge Williams sent the jury to consider its verdict. The jury indicated at 4pm that it would like to return today.
Defence counsel Greg Stanton, representing Kamm, today finished his final address.
In his closing address, Mr Stanton said love letters written by Kamm to the 15-year-old girl did not support allegations of indecent and sexual assault.
The evidence contradicted the mother of the alleged victim, who had represented herself as a "concerned, conservative" woman with her daughter's interests at heart, Mr Stanton said.
Mr Stanton said that, in 1997, the alleged victim had written to a friend: "Mum says if you're desperate to lose your virginity then do it with William and bear God's children."
The alleged victim had given Kamm's love letters to her mother. Even though her mother had been horrified by the letters, she had done little.
The mother showed the letters to a lawyer who recommended the alleged victim should be taken to a sexual assault counsellor.
The girl did see a counsellor in 1998, but nothing was done to pursue Kamm until 2002, Mr Stanton said. Even then, the mother had first contacted journalists before the police were approached, he said.
Earlier, Mr Stanton said the jurors were obliged to take a hard, objective view and to keep in mind that there were people whose beliefs and behaviour deviated from the norm but were tolerated in a democratic society.
The Crown had put to the jury that the evidence of the alleged victim, that there had been sexual liaisons including sexual intercourse, was backed up by the series of letters, written in 1993.
Despite the florid language, the letters largely had no admissions that anything had actually happened, the court heard.
On July 11, 1993, Kamm had written: "I don't want to push you. Our first kiss was lovely but wait for the next one. They get bigger and better all the time."
Two days later he said she would need a snorkel to get her breath and had sexy eyes and mouth but she would "have to wait". On July 17 he had written: "I will not be pressing you in any way to make love because there is plenty of time and you must get to know me better and develop this love."
On August 7, he had said: "I hope I did not stir you up by touching your legs. You have such sexy legs." But it was quite unclear, Mr Stanton said, where this might have happened or what was involved.
Kamm had written that he wanted to draw her closer "so that you will be deeply in love with me" and that she would "think of no one other than me".
On September 28, 1993, he had written that "touching you and kissing you that night was beautiful, I can see that you are desiring me".
Mr Stanton said that the letter did not stand up as evidence that there had been sexual intercourse in the middle of Nowra. When the evidence of his picking her up after a TAFE course was examined, it was found to be most unsatisfactory.
Mr Stanton pointed out that no complaint had been made until 2002 and then there was a liaison with a "grubby journalist" named Richardson from Today Tonight, involving payment of money.
The question of motive arose as to why the alleged victim and her mother had made the complaints.
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from Nine MSN News
Jury retires in Little Pebble case
AAP
18:50 AEST Tue Jul 5 2005
A jury has retired to consider its verdict on sexual assault charges against the religious leader known as The Little Pebble.
William Kamm, 55, has stood trial in the NSW District Court on four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse against a 15-year-old girl near Nowra on the NSW south coast.
The girl's claims dated back to 1993 when she was living in Kamm's religious commune at Cambewarra.
A collection of lurid love letters from Kamm to the girl was tabled during the trial.
Barrister Greg Stanton told the jury Kamm may seem like an "odd little man" who wrote sexy love letters but that did not mean he had sexually assaulted the girl.
However, Prosecutor Richard Herps said Kamm had corroborated three of the five charges through his own letters.
He said the letters offered support to the girl's allegations and the defence never suggested Kamm's highly sexualised letters had some other meaning.
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