A MAOIST cult leader – who fathered a child with a former Tregaron woman who later died in a fall – has been found guilty of a string of sex assaults.

Aravindan Balakrishnan, 75, used violence, fear and sexual degradation to control women he held captive, a jury at Southwark Crown Court was told.

One of his followers, Sian Davies, was the mother of his daughter who Balakrishnan falsely imprisoned and mistreated for more than 30 years in a commune in south London.

Ms Davies, who had severed all links with her family, died in hospital in 1997 several months after plunging from a bathroom window at the commune the previous Christmas Eve.

Balakrishnan, of Enfield, north London, who was said to have carried out a “brutal” campaign of violence and brainwashed his followers into thinking he had supernatural powers, was convicted of six counts of indecent assault, four counts of rape and two counts of actual bodily harm.

He was also found guilty of cruelty to a child under 16.

Following the verdict, Judge Deborah Taylor told Balakrishnan he faced a “substantial custodial sentence”. He will be sentenced next month.

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.”