THE self-styled “supreme leader” of a Maoist cult who kept his followers — including his daughter — compliant using a reign of abuse and terror was jailed yesterday.

Aravindan Balakrishnan, 75, known as Comrade Bala, carried out a “brutal” campaign of violence and “sexual degradation” against the women over several decades.

He brainwashed his followers into thinking he had god-like powers and invented a supernatural force known as “Jackie” who, he said, could trigger natural disasters if his will was flouted.

After fathering a daughter with one of his acolytes, he kept her a prisoner in their London home for three decades.

Beaten, banned from singing nursery rhymes, going to school or making friends, his daughter described herself as a “shadow woman” who was kept like a “caged bird.”

The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons fled the cult in 2013 with the help of a charity. She was 30 years old.

She had escaped eight years earlier in 2005, but was sent home by police as it was a bank holiday, the trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court heard.

Mr Balakrishnan, of Enfield, north London, was found guilty of six counts of indecent assault and four counts of rape.

He was also convicted of two counts of actual bodily harm, cruelty to a child under 16 and false imprisonment. He was cleared of one count of ABH and one count of indecent assault.

Judge Deborah Taylor said Mr Balakrishnan faces a “substantial custodial sentence.”

The pensioner denied the abuse, and claimed that the women vied for his affection and he treated his daughter with compassion.

But the court heard he used his charisma and radical politics to prey on women.