Doomsday cult leader William Kamm cleared of child grooming charges

A doomsday cult leader has been cleared of allegations he groomed a seven-year-old girl for more than a decade.

William Kamm, who calls himself Little Pebble, faced a five-week trial at Sydney's Downing Centre District Court alongside his wife Sandra Susan Mathison.

They were both charged with grooming a child for unlawful sexual activity and grooming a child under 14 for unlawful sexual activity.

Mr Kamm, 76, and Ms Mathison, 60, were acquitted of all counts. The cult leader said "God bless the judge" outside the court.

Judge Nicole Noman handed down her verdict after hearing evidence from the complainant, her relatives, corrections officers and police throughout the judge-alone trial last month.

Mr Kamm had pleaded not guilty to two counts of breaching an extended supervision order and inciting a person to do a sexual act with them in circumstances of aggravation. He was also cleared of those charges.

The convicted paedophile has 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.

Judge Noman accepted the account that Kamm and Mathison had a plan for the complainant to become Kamm's spouse, but the evidence was not strong enough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt whether this would occur before she was 16.

Mr Kamm has been on bail for the duration of the trial.

The allegations

The complainant, now in her 20s, gave evidence throughout the trial and alleged she had been subjected to grooming and manipulation by Mr Kamm, beginning when she was seven.

She alleged Mr Kamm whispered in code in a hoarse voice through recorded calls from Long Bay prison that she would be his "main queen" and begin a "new era" for their cult.

The court had heard Ms Mathison, who joined Mr Kamm's cult in 1984, facilitated the calls between Mr Kamm and the child by taking her into a room and putting the phone on loudspeaker.

The judge noted the complainant had the unenviable position of recounting more than a decade's worth of events, but found her evidence was truthful, although she was "mistaken" about some details.

Leaving the cult

As the complainant got older, she testified that she began experiencing panic attacks and suicidal thoughts as Mr Kamm's grooming allegedly escalated to forcing her to perform sexual acts during phone calls.

The judge found that while Mr Kamm was in a position of power over the complainant, the evidence was not strong enough to prove that he knew she was not consenting to masturbating over the phone with him.

Mr Kamm and the girl never met due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, which prevented him from leaving Sydney.