AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
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.