A convicted paedophile who leads a cult compound walked free from Sydney Downing Centre on Thursday after a judge found prosecutors hadn't proven beyond reasonable doubt that he and his wife intended to marry a child before she turned 16, despite accepting they'd planned for her to become his spouse.
William Kamm, 76, who calls himself "Little Pebble," and his wife Sandra Susan Mathison, 60, were acquitted of all charges in a judge-alone trial. They'd faced charges of grooming a child for unlawful sexual activity and grooming a child under 14 for unlawful sexual activity. Kamm was also cleared of two counts of breaching an extended supervision order and inciting a person to do a sexual act with them in circumstances of aggravation.
The Complainant's Account
The woman, now in her 20s, testified that Kamm subjected her to grooming and manipulation beginning when she was seven years old. She alleged that Kamm whispered in code through recorded calls from Long Bay prison, using a hoarse voice to tell her she'd be his "main queen" and begin a "new era" for their cult. Mathison, who joined Kamm's cult in 1984, facilitated the calls by taking the girl into a room and putting the phone on loudspeaker, according to court evidence.
Judge Nicole Noman said the complainant had the "unenviable position" of recounting more than a decade's worth of events and found her evidence truthful, though she was "mistaken" about some details. As she got older, the woman testified, she began experiencing panic attacks and suicidal thoughts as the alleged grooming escalated to forcing her to perform sexual acts during phone calls.
The Legal Gap
Judge Noman accepted that Kamm and Mathison had a plan for the complainant to become Kamm's spouse. But she ruled the evidence wasn't strong enough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt whether this would occur before the girl turned 16. The judge also found that while Kamm was in a position of power over the complainant, prosecutors hadn't proven he knew she wasn't consenting to masturbating over the phone with him.
Kamm and the girl never met because COVID-19 lockdown restrictions prevented him from leaving Sydney. He'd been on bail for the duration of the trial.
A History of Offending
The convicted paedophile operates a compound known as the Order of St Charbel in Bangalee on the NSW South Coast. Court orders resulting from prior offending against a young girl have restricted him from returning there for years. Outside court after his acquittal, Kamm said, "God bless the judge."
Why This Matters:
The acquittal highlights a troubling gap between what a judge found credible — that a cult leader planned to marry a child he'd groomed from age seven — and what prosecutors could prove under the specific requirements of criminal law. The complainant's decade-long testimony, which the judge found truthful, detailed a pattern of manipulation by a convicted paedophile in a position of religious authority over a child. That she experienced panic attacks and suicidal thoughts as the alleged abuse escalated underscores the psychological harm grooming inflicts on vulnerable young people. The case raises questions about whether existing grooming laws adequately protect children from predators who exploit positions of power, particularly when those predators operate within insular religious communities where supervision orders already restrict their movements due to prior offenses against minors.",
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