The 'child bride' who brought down Australia’s biggest doomsday cult.

In 1991, a pregnant 17-year-old boarded a plane from Germany to Australia with her new husband.

She spoke little English and had never left her home, but the God-fearing catholic was fulfilling heaven's calling. 

Together Bettina and William Kamm were on a mission to build God's paradise – away from Europe where the traditional values of Catholicism were, according to him, under threat. 

William was 41 years old and Bettina was not quite of consenting age when they wed – a detail he overlooked.

There was also another tiny detail her older, ecclesiastical partner had neglected to address.

He was already married. 

Listen to True Crime Conversations hosted by Emma Gillespie as she talks to Megan Norris about Australia's biggest doomsday cult. Post continues after audio. 

In the latest episode of True Crime Conversations, host Emma Gillespie spoke with author and investigative journalist Megan Norris about the child bride who brought down Australia's biggest doomsday cult. 

William – who called himself "Little Pebble" – founded the Order of St. Charbel in the 1960s, with Megan explaining that even as a young man, he was "a little different."

"When other teenagers in the 60s were growing their hair long and learning guitar so they could be like The Beatles, he was building little altars to his saints and saying prayers to heaven and holding prayer meetings all around the place," she said. 

The Doomsday teachings spouted by an American housewife inspired him and before long, he had set himself up in Bengali, New South Wales. William said the plot of ground, cordoned off by barbed wire fences, was his promised land.

In the mid-80s, he claimed the Holy Mother started to see him. 

"She came at three o'clock on the 13th of every month to visit him and deliver God's divine directions to the new messiah on Earth," Megan said. "A lot of people believed this."

Only William could receive divine guidance though. 

"He would impart these messages and tell everybody what she was telling him he had to do," she continued. 

His preachings gained more and more notoriety – especially when he went to the Vatican and wrangled a photo with the Pope. 

"He [sent] the photo around and claimed that he had a private audience with the Pope. And the photo was in William Kamm's words [that] the photo was evidence that the Holy Father himself had endorsed William Kamm's visions of the Holy Mother," Megan said. 

Image: Supplied.

"Which was nonsense. That had not happened."

As a result, the Vatican sent a stern letter to the Bishop of Wollongong who denounced William's claims. 

But it was too late. 

"His journey to paradise had already begun," she explained. "So he went all across Europe preaching to the faithful."

Before long, people across Europe were learning about the self-proclaimed Messiah who could speak to the Holy Mother. 

He ended up in Munich, where the towns were abuzz over his bizarre but compelling sermons. It was how he became entangled with Bettina and then, eventually, her sister Stephanie Hinrichs.

"He was very seductive," Megan explained. "He preyed on people, as predators do that are vulnerable. He befriended this family."

He proposed to Bettina shortly after meeting her. She was smitten and her mother was overjoyed. The family then agreed to move overseas to be with him at St. Charbel. 

"He said God had chosen her," Megan said. "It was like, a 19-page fax of pseudo-religious babble. But amongst [that] was this bizarre proposal, straight from the lips of the Holy Mother, saying that Betina had been chosen by the Lord, to be William Kamm's new wife."

At that time, he already had a wife and kids back in Australia. William told Bettina to "lose the wedding ring" and introduced her to his first wife as the nanny. 

Megan explained. "[His first wife] was about to die and be called away to heaven any day soon. And so Bettina's life became raising babies, reading stories – she basically became the nanny to his children."

Image: Supplied.

William told Bettina God had "big plans" for their family and it "would become clear" soon enough. 

"She was very young and impressionable," Megan continued. "His poor [first] wife was about to be called away to heaven and stricken with terminal cancer. But he thought it might be cruel to tell her that."

Bettina, as per God's will, was chosen to "step into her shoes as soon as she was called away by God." 

"Bettina would be the one to raise his motherless children and help him through his grief," Megan said. "Basically, that's what he told her."

He also told her not to say a word about their marriage, or about his first wife's cancer – so she didn't. 

However, some people from their community spotted the relationship between William and his new German nanny. 

As such, his wife packed up her things and left the community, along with several other people. 

"But you know, God had bigger plans for him," Megan reasoned. "So he took it in his stride... And he said that he would forgive those that trespassed against him when God's plan became clear, and they'd all feel really sorry that they judged him in this way."

The setback certainly didn't deter William and globally, he had about 500,000 followers. 250 people lived with him in Canberra and there were a few more communities in Central Victoria, Geelong, Queensland and in Adelaide. 

"He pulled a fair amount of clout," Megan explained. "His teachings were embraced by most, and I think it's typical cult behaviour. You geographically isolate a group of people, you take them out of mainstream society, and you preach to them."

William's wife, Bettina, had six children during their marriage but it wasn't always known to her that the self-proclaimed Messiah was creating a royal harem. He planned to fill it with 12 queens and 72 princesses who would carry his holy seed and populate the "new era in paradise."

Image: Supplied.

In that time, Bettina's younger sister Stephanie was growing up and William took notice. He had grown tired of his wife and as she became pregnant over and over with his children, his interest continued to wane.

"Her job was to produce a new generation," she said. "So her life became one of pregnancies, babies, mayhem and general drudgery and abuse."

William was sure Stephanie was going to have 27 children in his new era. If she or anyone else were struggling with their 'destiny', he would advise them to write to the Holy Mother – so that's what she did. 

"Stephanie would write these heartbreaking letters saying, 'Dear Holy Mum', is this really what God wants for me?' And the Holy Mum would say, 'You know, be patient, little poppy God has chosen the man for you already, the man who will be your husband, he's the man you never thought you could ever possibly marry,'" Megan explained. 

But Stephanie believed her 'chosen' man was Keanu Reeves. 

"That was the man of her dreams at the time, she seen him in Speed," Megan went on to say. "So when he sort of teased her with the idea that the Holy Mother and God had already chosen the man she couldn't possibly ever have dreamed in her wildest dreams of marrying, she just assumed that was Keanu Reeves. She never dreamed it was William Kamm."

Image: Supplied.

These letters to the Holy Mother were just one tool William used to groom Stephanie, as he often responded to her letters to tell her she needed to take the "natural" path to conception, as it was God's will. 

But Bettina didn't know Stephanie had been chosen to be part of William's harem. She also believed, under her husband's manipulation, that every other child born to him would be an immaculate conception. 

"[He told her] she was special. She was the queen of all queens. Their relationship was physical and real – a real marriage but the others would be mystical spouses," Megan explained. "So they wouldn't have a sexual or physical relationship with him."

Then he swore his Queens to silence, including Stephanie. 

"[He] said to Stephanie that Betina 'doesn't need to know', because 'if word gets out too soon, it will ruin everything', basically," Megan said. 

The sexual abuse began when she was 14 years old. William would make her hide on the floor of his car. 

"[He told her] it was a secret and he didn't want Bettina to find out because she'd be insanely jealous," Megan explained. "She was scared that might be true and [that] Bettina might blame her."

William took her to the local motel – sometimes alone and sometimes with another queen. She hated the trips and the abuse and eventually, she realised how poorly he had begun to treat his wife Bettina, who was in her fifth pregnancy. 

"She suddenly had this epiphany where she thought, 'Well, maybe I should get pregnant, and then he'll leave me alone... he'll lose interest in me too. And I won't have to do this anymore," she said. "Maybe the baby is the lesser of two evils. So she decided that was what she wanted."

In February 1998, she conceived her child and just as she predicted, he lost all interest in her. 

Soon, Stephanie fell into a depression. Her mother and sister noticed it so she was sent away to a community in Victoria that made her happy. However, once she was returned to William's commune, she fell into a depression again.

"She realised that every time she came back, she felt worse than before. And it was the cult, it was living there that was making her so depressed," Megan explained. "She felt that if she didn't get out, she would die. She felt so despairing, and she was suicidal."

While spending time in Sydney (after being sent there by her family), she discovered a telephone hotline called Hot Gossip and met a man who she began sneaking around to see.

"She told him she was a single mum with a young child, living in a rural community, a religious community. And that was all she told him because she didn't want to scare him. She didn't tell him it was a cult with armed guards and locked doors and locked gates or anything," Megan said. 

After driving her home one evening, he could "see the rolls of barbed wire" and knew she was living in a cult. The man offered her an opportunity to leave – so she took it.

The community was horrified as she announced her news.

"One of the ladies said to her in the cult, 'You will die, you're turning your back on God and you will die, you will get sick, and you will die and your baby will get sick, and he will die. That will be your fault,'" Megan said. "And she believed that."

However, William gave her his blessing. She was free to leave in 2002.

"I think she'd become really problematic and a challenge to him, and she was making the noise," Megan explained of William's decision. "And the man she'd met was an unknown quantity. But I also think he had a bit of apprehension about what it would mean if he said no and so he gave her his blessing."

Later that year, police arrested William and charged him with multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault involving two of his former underage queens.

On August 2, 2002, Stephanie told her story to the Child Protection Enforcement Agency and as soon she pressed charges, her family didn't speak to her for the seven years that followed.

One by one, people began to leave the compound, including Bettina and Stephanie's mother, along with their other sisters. Slowly they realised William had never been their saviour, but a strategic pedophile. 

In 2005, Kamm was convicted and sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison. He was released on parole in 2014 with strict supervision orders. 

In November 2021, he was given another year in prison when he used his third wife’s Facebook account to contact another potential queen, breaching his orders.

William lied to hundreds of thousands of people around the world with his deceptive Messiah ploy. Now he lives in an apartment in Sydney, alone. 

He is a father to at least 20 children. 

You can listen to the full interview with Megan Norris on this episode of True Crime Conversations:

Feature Image: Supplied.