Women held as slaves for 30 years in Britain

A man who led an obscure Maoist collective and allegedly held three women against their will in a London house for 30 years has been charged with 25 offences including rape, police said today.

Police said Aravindan Balakrishnan, 74, was charged with false imprisonment, rape, cruelty to a person under 16 years old and indecent assault. The charges, spanning from 1980 to 2013, relate to three women who were freed from a south London house last year after decades of alleged "emotional control" and domestic servitude.

At the time, police described the case as the largest-ever modern-day slavery case in Britain.

Balakrishnan, known as "Comrade Bala," led the Maoist collective in the late 1970s.

Police said he and another suspect, a 67-year-old woman, shared a political ideology with the three victims, who were reportedly a 69-year-old Malaysian, a 57-year-old Irish woman and a 30-year-old Briton.

 Police believe the victims lived together with the two suspects in what appeared to be a communist collective. The three victims were believed to have been physically abused and subject to close control, police added.

Balakrishnan was arrested in November 2013 along with the other suspect, reportedly his wife. She was released without charge in September.

Maoists Aravindan Balakrishnan (left) and his wife Chanda (centre) outside a 1997 inquest into the death of Sian Davies. (YouTube)

“The CPS has today authorised the police to charge Aravindan Balakrishnan on a number of counts including false imprisonment, cruelty to a person under 16 years, indecent assault and rape”, said senior prosecutor at the Child Protective Services Anthony Connell.

“After careful consideration we have decided that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that a prosecution is in the public interest.

“May I remind all concerned that criminal proceedings against the defendant have been commenced and of his right to a fair trial.

“It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings."

Balakrishnan is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London next Wednesday.

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