UK Maoist cult leader raped followers, enslaved daughter, court hears

London: A violent Maoist cult leader sexually abused his brainwashed female followers and imprisoned his own daughter in homes across south London for over 30 years, British prosecutors said on Thursday.

Aravindan Balakrishnan, 75, used fear, sexual degradation and physical and mental violence to keep the women under his control, turning his commune based on Communist teachings into his own personal cult, London's Southwark Crown Court was told.

Even his own daughter, who was born to one of the women in the collective, was bullied and beaten, barely allowed to leave the house, never permitted to go to school, play with friends or see a doctor, said prosecutor Rosina Cottage.

She was not told who her mother and father were, and when she finally escaped his clutches two years ago, she was aged 30 and very ill with diabetes.

Balakrishnan, a small, grey-haired bespectacled figure, denies 16 charges of cruelty to a child, false imprisonment, indecent assault, rape and assault.