AUSTRALIA
Illawarra Mercury
July 9, 2005
He was a cult prophet, spreading messages about the end of the world. She was a dreamy young schoolgirl, lured by his promises that she would be his queen in a fairytale land. But the fantasy was cut short when he molested her.
By REBECCA SENESCALL
THE end of the world was coming, William Kamm said. The Virgin Mary had told him so.
On the 13th day of each month messages from heaven came to Kamm, on his Order of St Charbel property at Cambewarra, from a God who promised to strike a sinful world with earthquakes, plagues and tidal waves.
But Kamm and his followers would be safe, because God had chosen Kamm to be "the new Abraham", to take from his followers 12 queens and 72 princesses who would spawn a pure race to live in the new world.
As the news spread among the Order of St Charbel community, parents began to pray that their daughters would be among Kamm's 84 "mystical wives". Girls and young women talked excitedly about the chance of becoming "someone special in God's eyes".
The relationship between each girl and Kamm was a spiritual union, they believed. There was to be no sex - Kamm would merely embrace them and they would fall pregnant miraculously.
So when a 15-year-old girl was chosen in 1993 as one of Kamm's queens, her parents were honoured and had not a hint of worry.
At the start of Kamm's Sydney District Court trial three weeks ago, the girl revealed to the jury what she had kept secret for years: that she had been kissed and fondled by Kamm, and that once, in his car, he had put his hand under her skirt and masturbated her.