A Maoist cult leader who raped followers and held his daughter captive for three decades has died in prison.
Aravindan Balakrishnan, known as Comrade Bala, carried out a “brutal” campaign of violence and “sexual degradation” against women over decades, a court heard.
The 81-year-old died in custody at HMP Dartmoor on Friday, the Ministry of Justice confirmed to Sky News.
His trial heard how he brainwashed his followers into thinking he had God-like powers and invented a supernatural force called Jackie who he said could trigger natural disasters if he was disobeyed.
When the Maoist commune called the Workers Institute, based in Brixton, south London, was raided in 1978, Balakrishnan dominated and imposed his will on a small group of women for the next 35 years.
He fathered a daughter with one of his followers, who was then kept prisoner in the commune for 30 years.
She was beaten, banned from singing nursery rhymes, and was not allowed to go to school or make friends.
She later described herself as a “shadow woman” who was kept like a “caged bird”.
Balakrishnan was convicted of a string of sex attacks, cruelty to a child under 16, false imprisonment and two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in 2015.
He was jailed for 23 years in 2016.
A Prison Service spokesperson said the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman had been informed of Balakrishnan’s death.