Cult leader William Kamm and wife groomed young girl for a decade, Sydney court told | New South Wales

The cult leader and his wife allegedly kept a young girl in her care for ten years so she could give birth to their 45 children in a post-apocalyptic world.

William Kamm, also known as “Little Pebble”, was the leader of the Order of Saint Charbel, a religious order that operated from an estate on the south coast of New South Wales.

The 76-year-old considered himself a pope, visionary and prophet who sent messages from Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary to his followers.

He and his wife, Sandra Susan Mathison, 60, face a judge-only trial in Sydney’s Downing Center district court that begins on Tuesday.

They pleaded not guilty to jointly grooming the girl between 2010 and 2020, when she was aged six to 16.

Kamm also denied encouraging the girl to engage in inappropriate behavior and twice breaching extended supervision orders by contacting her.

The woman, who cannot be legally identified, said that even when she was six years old, she realized that she was meant to be Kamm’s wife.

“His role was to try to get us to do God’s will,” he testified.

Crown prosecutor Andrew Norrie told the court Kamm was ordered to marry 12 of his wives, known as “queens” and other women called “princesses” chosen by the Virgin Mary.

The court was told the women were on a “mission from God” to become pregnant and rebuild a new era of society after natural disasters destroyed the world and left Kamm and her followers behind.

The prosecutor told the court that at first the girl was not allowed to speak directly to the cult leader by phone because he was in prison, but instead was consulted using code words.

During a phone conversation with the girl when she was six years old, Kamm allegedly said: “Hello darling, I can’t wait to see you start this beautiful mission together.”

Norrie said he agreed to “spiritually marry” Kamm when he was seven years old.

Mathison allegedly said she couldn’t be with other boys and that she had to keep her “marriage” to Kamm a secret because the devil would try to stop it.

During a meeting in October 2013, the cult leader allegedly said the then-nine-year-old had to put on his running shoes to follow him.

He also allegedly said he wanted to lock her in a closet to keep her to himself.

When the girl told Mathison she was uncomfortable, she was allegedly told that Kamm did not have any dirty thoughts and that she was simply doing God’s will.

The couple also plans to take the girl on an international cruise after she is released from prison, Norrie said.

Kamm was released on parole in November 2014 and was placed on probation, barring him from having contact with women under 17.

He allegedly violated this order by speaking to the girl on the phone.

The complainant allegedly received a letter from Kamm in December 2019, when she was 15, saying she predicted Jesus would have 45 children.

In March 2020, the then-teen visited the cult’s property and Mathison allegedly said he could take Kamm’s sperm in a glass to get her pregnant.

At the time, plans to meet the religious leader in person for the first time were put on hold due to Australia’s lockdown amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kamm and Mathison were arrested in September 2024.

The cult leader’s lawyer, David Mulligan, made a brief submission in which he said his client had never physically met the complainant.

Dev Bhutani, representing Mathison, attacked the crown case against his client, saying it was “derivative” of the case against Kamm.

The trial continues on Wednesday.