A Maoist cult leader who raped followers and held his daughter captive for three decades has been jailed for 23 years in the UK.

Judge Deborah Taylor told 75-year-old Aravindan Balakrishnan he had "shown no remorse" for his "grave and serious crimes".

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.

"You turned into a largely house-bound demi-god or dictator," the judge said.

Describing the full brutality of the abuse he inflicted on his victims, she said he "engendered a climate of fear, jealousy and competition for approval".

The sentencing came as his daughter, waiving her anonymity for the first time, told how he cruelly deprived her of any contact with the outside world for three decades.

Katy Morgan-Davies described her father as a as a "narcissistic psychopath...obsessed with controlling people".

The court heard that at the age of 14, Balakrishnan told her she was responsible for her mother's death.

"He loved violence, and those totalitarian dictatorships. He wanted to be like that - one of those dictators like Stalin, Mao or Pol Pot", she said.

"(He wanted) everyone to listen to him - if they don't, he can kill them with impunity".

The judge said his treatment of her amounted to "a catalogue of mental and physical abuse".

Now aged 32, Ms Morgan-Davies finally escaped from the cult in 2013 after she and two other members were rescued by the police and charities they had contacted after memorising a helpline number they had seen on TV.

Others, who had joined the cult in the 1970s had escaped years before - including two who gave evidence against Balakrishnan at his trial.

Two of the women died while living there, including Ms Morgan-Davies' mother Sian Davies, who died after falling from an open window in 1997.

Omnipotent mind-control

Ms Morgan-Davies, who only discovered her mother's true identity after her death, said one of the saddest parts of her life was the cruelty she experienced at her hands.

Her mother, like the other women in the commune, was encouraged to spy on Ms Morgan-Davies and report to Balakrishnan, often resulting in violent punishment.

"There was no concept of father and mother. (Everyone in the commune) were just all comrades," Ms Morgan-Davies explained.

"Whilst my mother was alive, there was no affection between us. It was not like I missed her when she passed away. In a way when she fell through the window, things got better".

"Because she was one of the worst bullies, when she was not there things got better. There was less reporting, and so there was less violence".

Ms Morgan-Davies explained how her mother's family had described her as a "very nice person" - and she said Balakrishnan robbed them of any connection by turning Ms Davies into a "shadow of her former self".

One of the ways Balakrishnan controlled the members of the cult was through the invention of an omnipotent mind-control machine, which they knew as "Jackie".

She explained: "He said if I did something wrong, others and me, we would be killed by Jackie. If he intervened by slapping us and beating us, then Jackie would think that enough had been done and not kill us. So we should be thankful that he is hurting us...because we would be saved from Jackie."

Ms Morgan-Davies said that as she grew older and developed an interest in men, she was forced to report her thoughts and fantasies to Balakrishnan, prompting further threats of retaliation from Jackie.

Despite the threats, Ms Morgan-Davies attempted to escape almost a decade before her eventual rescue, running to a police station in 2005. However, the police sent her back to the commune.

"The police persuaded me to call (Balakrishnan) and to go back," Ms Morgan-Davies said. "I had no choice".

Asked why her complaint was not taken more seriously, Ms Morgan-Davies shrugged. "Why did they send me back? It was a bank holiday".

She described how other opportunities to help those in the sect had been missed, adding: "The cult was very clever at hiding what they did not want other people to know".

Known as Comrade Bala, Balakrishnan carried out a "brutal" campaign of violence and "sexual degradation" against women over decades, the court heard.

He was convicted of a string of sex attacks, cruelty to a child under 16 and false imprisonment following a trial at London's Southwark Crown Court at the end of last year.

He was also found guilty of two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH).