William Kamm

Last updated

William Kamm, also known as "The Little Pebble" (born 1950 in Cologne, West Germany), is the founder and leader of a religious group in Australia called the "Order of St Charbel" (or sometimes referred to as "The Community") named after the Maronite saint Charbel Makhlouf. [1] The Order of St Charbel is considered as a Christian sect and a fringe religious grouping. [2] His religious order claims to be part of the Roman Catholic Church, but the Maronite Church and the Holy See do not regard the group as being part of Roman Catholicism. [3] He was released from prison after serving 9 years of a 10-year prison sentence/term for the rape and assault of a teenager. [4] [5]

Contents

Controversies

Conviction for sexual assault charges

On 14 October 2005, Kamm was sentenced [6] to five years in prison with a non-parole period of 3+1⁄2 years for a string of sexual attacks including aggravated sexual assault on a 15-year-old girl. He claimed that she was one of his 84 mystical wives. [7] The assaults occurred when the girl was living within Kamm's Order of St Charbel, a community (living in a compound) near Nowra, New South Wales. Kamm claimed to have received advice from the Virgin Mary that the girl should be chosen as one of 12 queens and 72 princesses who would all become his wives, with whom he would spawn a new human race after the world was cleansed and burnt by a ball of fire. [8] Kamm's letters and diary entries to the 15-year-old girl, which were made public during the court session, display an explicit sexual style and were major evidence in his prosecution. [9]

Kamm was also found guilty in May 2007 of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault in relation to another 15-year-old girl. In August 2007, after losing an appeal on his original sentence, Kamm was re-sentenced to a total of 15 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 11 years. He was due to become eligible for release on parole on 13 April 2013, [5] but was refused. [10] In November 2014 parole was granted. [11] Upon his release, the New South Wales government applied for an Extended Supervision Order in the Supreme Court of NSW. His lawyer, Omar Juweinat opposed the application which resulted in six years of litigation. In 2021, the Supreme Court upheld the appeal and allowed Kamm to return to his property. [12]

Papal aspirations and prophecies

Kamm was also noted for a series of unusual reputed prophecies which were never fulfilled (including the start of World War III). Kamm claimed that Pope John Paul II, who remains widely venerated throughout Kamm's movement, would consecrate Kamm a bishop and appoint him as his official and sole successor to the papacy. When this prophecy was unfulfilled on Pope John Paul's death in 2005, Kamm quickly issued a press statement, saying "heaven clearly changed its plans" and declaring, that they would accept Pope Benedict XVI as legitimate Roman Pontiff. They claim prophecies have changed and stated that Kamm is to be the successor to Benedict XVI, instead of to John Paul II as previously claimed. One of Kamm's claims is that Pope John Paul II will rise from the dead and reappear on the surface of the world again to fight evil along with Benedict XVI and possibly to appoint Kamm. [13]

Personal life and release from prison

Kamm was married to Bettina Kamm. His former wife, who reportedly lives at the St Charbel compound near Nowra, condemned him, but said followers still revered him as their prophet. They have a son (born 1999) from the relationship. [14]

Kamm was conditionally released from prison in 2014 after serving nine years of his 10-year sentence. Conditions specify that he may not have unsupervised contact with people below 18. Since his release, Kamm married for a third time, to a woman who was a long-time member of his religious community. Media reports speculate that Kamm is believed to have fathered more than 20 children during his days as a cult leader. [4]

In November 2021, he was back in custody after allegedly contacting teenage girls via social media, with the court hearing that he allegedly used his wife’s Facebook account to send messages to the females.

The then 71-year-old was charged with four counts of failing to comply with a supervision order. [15]

On 22 November 2022, Kamm faced a court in Sydney. He pleaded guilty, and was released with time served after spending a year and six days on remand. His supervision order was suspended while he was in custody but will resume upon his release. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints</span> Latter-Day Saints denomination

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a Mormon fundamentalist group whose members practice polygamy. It is variously defined as a cult, a sect or a new religious movement. The FLDS Church has been involved in various illegal activities, including child marriages, child abandonment, sexual assault and human trafficking including child sexual abuse. The sect is not connected to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest Latter-day Saint denomination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren Jeffs</span> American sex offender and cult leader (born 1955)

Warren Steed Jeffs is an American cult leader who is serving a life sentence in Texas for child sexual assault following two convictions in 2011. He is the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a polygamous cult based in Arizona. The FLDS Church was founded in the early-20th century when its founders deemed the renunciation of polygamy by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be apostate. The LDS Church disavows any relation between it and the FLDS Church, although there are significant historical ties.

Graham John Capill is a former New Zealand Christian leader, politician and convicted rapist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">YFZ Ranch</span> Former Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints community in Texas

The Yearning for Zion Ranch, or the YFZ Ranch, was a 1,700-acre (690-hectare) Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) community of as many as 700 people, located near Eldorado in Schleicher County, Texas, United States. In April 2014, the State of Texas took physical and legal possession of the property. As of 2019, the property was in the process of being sold to the Dallas-based firm ETG Properties LLC, who were already leasing it for use as a military and law enforcement training facility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Providence (religious movement)</span> Christian new religious movement

Providence, better known as JMS, is a Christian new religious movement founded by Jung Myung-seok in 1980 and headquartered in Wol Myeong-dong, South Korea. Providence has been widely referred to by international media as a cult.

This page documents Catholic Church sexual abuse cases by country.

The Lord Our Righteousness Church, sometimes called Strong City, is a religious community near Clayton, Union County, New Mexico. It originated with a group of about eighty adherents who migrated to the area from Sandpoint, Idaho in 2000. In 2008, the community consisted of approximately fifty people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Wilson (bishop)</span> Australian Roman Catholic archbishop (1950–2021)

Philip Edward Wilson was an Australian Roman Catholic prelate who was the eighth Archbishop of Adelaide from 2001 to 2018. He was President of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference from 2006 to 2010. From 1996 to 2001 Wilson was bishop of the Diocese of Wollongong, where he gained a reputation as a "healing bishop" for handling child-abuse scandals.

The House of Yahweh (HOY) is a religious group based in Eula, Texas. The assembly has been controversial and is referred to as a cult by former members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Koresh</span> American religious cult leader (1959–1993)

David Koresh was an American cult leader who played a central role in the Waco siege of 1993. As the head of the Branch Davidians, a religious sect, Koresh claimed to be its final prophet. His apocalyptic Biblical teachings, including interpretations of the Book of Revelation and the Seven Seals, attracted various followers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual abuse scandals in Catholic orders and societies</span>

As distinct from abuse by some parish priests, who are subject to diocesan control, there has also been abuse by members of Roman Catholic orders, which often care for the sick or teach at school. Just as diocesan clergy have arranged parish transfers of abusive priests, abusive brothers in Catholic orders are sometimes transferred.

The Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Victoria is part of the Catholic clerical sexual abuse in Australia and the much wider Catholic sexual abuse scandal in general, which involves charges, convictions, trials and ongoing investigations into allegations of sex crimes committed by Catholic priests and members of religious orders. The Catholic Church in Victoria has been implicated in a reported 40 suicides among about 620 sexual abuse victims acknowledged to the public after internal investigations by the Catholic Church in Victoria.

Catholic sexual abuse cases in Australia, like Catholic Church sexual abuse cases elsewhere, have involved convictions, trials and ongoing investigations into allegations of sex crimes committed by Catholic priests, members of religious orders and other personnel which have come to light in recent decades, along with the growing awareness of sexual abuse within other religious and secular institutions.

The Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary is a new religious movement with Catholic background founded in 2001 by Juliano Verbard in Piton Saint-Leu, Réunion. The group, widely referred to as a cult, was the subject of a substantial coverage in the media after several judicial cases involving the founder.

Gerald Francis Ridsdale is an Australian laicised Catholic priest and sex offender. He was convicted between 1993 and 2017 of a large number of child sexual abuse and indecent assault charges against 65 children aged as young as four years. The heinous offences occurred from the 1960s to the 1980s while Ridsdale worked as a school chaplain at St Alipius Primary School, a boys' boarding school in the Victorian regional city of Ballarat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haredi burqa sect</span> Subgroup of ultra-Orthodox Jewish women

The "Haredi burqa sect" is a community of Haredi Jews that ordains the full covering of a woman's entire body and face, including her eyes, for the preservation of modesty in public. In effect, the community asserts that a Jewish woman must not expose her bare skin to anyone but her husband and immediate family. The garment in question, known as a shal, is also referred to as a frumka—a portmanteau of the Yiddish-language word frum and the Arabic-language word burqa. The Haredi burqa sect, with an estimated population of several hundred people as of 2011, is primarily concentrated in Israel, and particularly in the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh. These Haredim rarely leave their homes; the married women who do come out in public are accompanied by their daughters, who also don long robes.

The Church of Jesus Christ Restored is a small sect in the Latter Day Saint movement based at Chatsworth, Ontario, Canada. The church was founded in the late 1960s by Stanley M. King and is currently led by his son, Fred King. It reportedly has under 40 members, down from a high of around 80.

Child sexual abuse is a matter of concern in Australia, and is the subject of investigation and prosecution under the law, and of academic study into its prevalence, causes and social implications.

References

  1. ↑ Di Luaro, F; Through a Glass Darkly: Collected Research, Sydney University Press, 2006, ISBN   978-1-920898-54-0 p296
  2. ↑ The Daily Telegraph, Australia: Sects in Australia: Fringe religious groups that have left their mark on the nation
  3. ↑ Excommunicated "mystic" on trial over new abuse charges; B. Doherty, “Mourning the Death of Our Faith”: The Little Pebble and The Marian Work of Atonement 1950-1984, Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society 36 (2015) Archived 15 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine , 231-273.
  4. 1 2 News.com.au: Child sex offender William Kamm’s parole conditions end
  5. 1 2 "Cult leader jailed for more sexual abuse". The Age. AAP. 24 August 2007. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  6. ↑ "Judge punishes doomsday prophet". The Age. AAP. 14 October 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  7. ↑ Religious Leader Charged with Sexual Assault, abc.net.au.
  8. ↑ Morton, J; Lobez, S (2011). Kings of Stings: The Greatest Swindles From Down Under. Victory Books. p. 158. ISBN   978-0-522-85859-4 . Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  9. ↑ Graeme Webber (2008). A Wolf Among the Sheep: How God's Prophet the Little Pebble Became a Womanising, Millionaire Cult Leader. KeyStone Press. ISBN   978-0-980-52120-7 . Retrieved 12 November 2014.[ page needed ]
  10. ↑ "Sect leader Little Pebble's parole to be refused". ABC News. Australia: ABC. 15 February 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  11. ↑ Aurebach, Taylor (12 November 2014). "Victims' pain as 'The Little Pebble' William Kamm rolls out of jail". The Daily Telegraph. Australia. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  12. ↑ "Dailytelegraph.com.au | Subscribe to The Daily Telegraph for exclusive stories". www.dailytelegraph.com.au. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  13. ↑ Snow, R; Deadly cults: the crimes of true believers, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003, ISBN   978-0-275-98052-8 p110
  14. ↑ The Daily Telegraph Australia: Victims’ pain as ‘The Little Pebble’ William Kamm rolls out of jail
  15. ↑ "Cult leader's alleged message to young woman". News.
  16. ↑ "Cult leader released after Facebook breach". 22 November 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.