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| Communist cult leader Aravindan Balakrishnan guilty of sex assaults | Communist cult leader Aravindan Balakrishnan guilty of sex assaults |
| (34 minutes later) | |
| A Communist cult leader who ran a commune in south London has been found guilty of a string of sex assaults. | |
| Aravindan Balakrishnan, 75, of Enfield, north London, raped two followers and falsely imprisoned and mistreated his daughter for more than 30 years. | |
| Southwark Crown Court heard he carried out a "brutal" campaign of violence and "sexual degradation". | |
| He was convicted of six counts of indecent assault, four counts of rape, two counts of actual bodily harm. | |
| The defendant, who was also found guilty of cruelty to a child under 16, had brainwashed his followers into thinking he had supernatural powers, the jury heard. | |
| Cult victims 'too frightened to leave' | |
| More news on this and other stories from London | |
| Following the verdict, Judge Deborah Taylor told Balakrishnan he faced a "substantial custodial sentence". | |
| One of the defendant's former followers, Josephine Herivel, who was present in court shouted after the verdict: "You are sending an innocent man to prison. Shame on you." | |
| Balakrishnan, who was originally arrested in November 2013, was cleared of one count of actual bodily harm and one count of indecent assault. | |
| He is due to be sentenced on 29 January. |