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Maoist cult leader Aravindan Balakrishnan guilty of sex assaults | |
(35 minutes later) | |
A Maoist cult leader who used violence, fear and sexual degradation to control women he held captive has been found guilty of a string of sex assaults. | |
Aravindan Balakrishnan, 75, raped two followers and falsely imprisoned and mistreated his daughter for more than 30 years in a commune in South London. | |
Southwark Crown Court heard he carried out a "brutal" campaign of violence. | |
He was convicted of six counts of indecent assault, four counts of rape and two counts of actual bodily harm. | |
Balakrishnan, of Enfield, north London - 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' | Cult victims 'too frightened to leave' |
Following the verdict, Judge Deborah Taylor told Balakrishnan he faced a "substantial custodial sentence". | Following the verdict, Judge Deborah Taylor told Balakrishnan he faced a "substantial custodial sentence". |
Following the conviction Balakrishnan's daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she was "overwhelmed with relief". | |
She added: "I believe justice has definitely been done. | |
"I am very happy with the result and, at the end of the day, he is still my dad." | |
Det Sgt Paul Wiggett said the cult leader's daughter was scared of her father and that she "genuinely believed the day she left the house she was going to explode - that her life would come to an end". | |
More news on this and other stories from London | |
The woman was born to one of Balakrishnan's followers Sian Davies, who was known as Comrade Sian, but the then 13-year-old was unaware she was her mother. | |
Sian Davies suffered fatal injuries when she fell from a window at the cult's home on Christmas Eve in 1996. | |
Balakrishnan's daughter told the court she was beaten, banned from singing nursery rhymes, going to school or making friends. | |
Describing herself as a "caged bird", the woman escaped in 2013 at the age of 30 with the help of a charity. | |
After the verdict, one of the defendant's former followers, Josephine Herivel, who was present in court shouted: "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. | 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. | He is due to be sentenced on 29 January. |