Aravindan Balakrishnan, a cult leader, kept women captives included his daughter, born in the commune and barred from the outside world. As cult leader he kept the women followers as slaves and he raped them for more than 30 years. He had allegedly brainwashed them into thinking he was god, a court heard. The 75-year-old  man cowed them with sex and violence, claiming that rape would “purify them of bourgeois culture.”

Jurors were told of how his daughter cried and wet herself when her father beat women. His daughter was so servile that she called him “my lord and master.” Reportedly, one Christmas Eve, the girl saw her mother, Sian Davies, tied up and lying in blood after falling from a window. The woman died soon after in 1997. Balakrishnan’s daughter managed to flee when aged 30.

Prosecutor Rosina Cottage QC said Balakrishnan ised sexual degradation to subjugate women in his cult in Brixton, South London. The house was locked at all times supposedly to “keep out fascist agents.”

On his part, Balakrishnan denies wrongdoing.