I WAS THE MESSIAH'S BRIDE

A NEW BOOK REVEALS HOW A GOLD COAST WOMAN BROUGHT DOWN A CULT LEADER

- Michael Crooks

After more than a decade of growing up in a religious community in rural A NSW, Stefanie Hinrichs finally found herself free in February 2002. The 22-year-old and her toddler son, Kilian, fled the commune after Stefanie had secretly met a Sydney man through a dating service. Living in her boyfriend Brett's flat in harbourside Double Bay, the young mum savoured her new life free from the commune's stringent rules and bizarre rituals she had come to believe were normal.

One night, the pair were having a drink when Brett broached the subject of her mysterious past and asked the identity of her son's father.

"William Kamm," she said, naming the charismatic leader of the religious group. Curious, Brett asked how old she was when the sexual relationship started. "When I was 14," Stefanie replied.

So began the downfall of a doomsday cult leader and paedophile, who told his followers he was chosen by the Virgin Mary to repopulate the earth. In a new book, The Messiah's Bride by journalist Megan Norris, Stefanie reveals how her German family came to be lured to Australia by the cult leader, before she exposed him as a serial child rapist.

"I'm overjoyed that the book is now being published, knowing that it will help others," Stefanie, 43, tells WHO. "It was very emotional for me to share everything, but at the same time, very liberating." As Kamm tells it, his religious 'order' was born in a church in NSW. Kamm, whose family emigrated from post-war Germany and settled in Wollongong, NSW, began telling people in the '80s that the "Holy Mother Mary" visited him in Wollongong's St Francis Xavier Cathedral.

Kamm said that Mary had told him he was the chosen messiah to lead the faithful to heaven.

Dubbing himself 'Little Pebble' and calling his sect the 'Roman Catholic Order of St Charbel', Kamm accrued a devoted band of followers who believed his prophecy that the world would soon end.