LONDON: Neighbours and people in contact with Maoist cult leader Aravindan Balakrishnan, 75, and members of his commune, described them as “odd” and “strange”, hardly mixing with others and living in a house with the windows and door always shut.
Neighbours told police they occasionally saw a male Indian, flanked by two women — one Caucasian and the other, believed to be a Malaysian.
The two women shopped together once a week, or went to the laundrette.
They hardly spoke to other people and sometimes, had a younger woman with them, believed to be the daughter of Balakrishnan from his relationship with a woman from the commune, Sian Davies, who died in 1997 after a fall from their bathroom window.
Balakrishnan, who founded the radical sect dubbed the “Worker’s Institute” in Brixton, south London, in the late 1970s, faces 16 charges in connection to three victims.
He has denied four counts of rape, three of assault, seven of indecent assault, one of false imprisonment and one of child cruelty.
He was arrested in November 2013 after his daughter and another member of his commune phoned a charity organisation to say they were falsely imprisoned.
His daughter claimed she had been imprisoned for 30 years since she was born.
A nurse who worked in the ward where Davies was warded after her fall, spoke of “odd people who used to visit her regularly”.
“The two women always flanked the man. It was strange. One of the women always wore a green jacket. Only the Asian man would speak. He always carried a briefcase with an air of importance. If I asked a question, they (the two women) would look at the man.
“I recall the lady in the green jacket holding her (Davies’) hand. They would sit there for hours. The two women seemed to be in a trance, always looking down and never made eye contact.”
She said when asked if Davies had any next of kin, Balakrishnan allegedly said no.
Margaret Elery Morgan, a former teacher and cousin of Davies, who was called as a crown witness yesterday, gave a different story.
They both grew up together in Wales and moved to London where Davies studied at the London School of Economics while Morgan pursued a teaching career.
Although she saw her cousin initially, it became more difficult to contact her after Davies joined the cult.
Once when Morgan asked about Davies, she was told by Balakrishnan that she was working in India.
When she heard news of Davies’ death, she was asked to identify the body and to collect her things.
Her cousin, whom she said had loved to dress up in expensive clothes with Chanel handbags, had only some towels and “just very basic things and a night dress she would never be seen dead in”, she recalled.
On the day the police came to take the two women away from Balakrishnan’s house, his daughter who was kept in almost total isolation, could barely walk.
The third woman, believed to be a Malaysian, was taken away later on the same day.