Pictured for the first time: Communist sect 'leader' accused of keeping three women as slaves for more than 30 years - and are these two of them?
- - Aravindan Balakrishnan, 73, and his wife Chanda, 67, ran Maoist sect
- - Malaysian woman claims that eldest 'captive' is her sister Aishah Mautum
- - Accused captors 'were jailed for assaulting a Met officer' in 1978
- - Woman who may have been Rosie's mother died 'mysteriously'
- - Sian Davies, 44, fell out of a window at a property in Herne Hill, 1997
- - Cousin describes 'Bala' as a 'toothless old man' not 'charismatic leader'
- - He is pictured in images from ITV footage attending funeral of Ms Davies
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Footage of Aravindan Balakrishnan, also known as Comrade Bala, has emerged from 1997
This is Aravindan Balakrishnan - the Maoist 'sect leader' accused of keeping three 'slaves' captive for more than 30 years.
Aravindan Balakrishnan, 73, is accused with his wife Chanda, 67, of holding three women as slaves for three decades.
One of the women rescued from a Brixton council flat last month was the daughter of a renowned Bletchley Park codebreaker during the Second World War.
Josephine Herivel, 57, was allegedly held captive by the couple along with 69-year-old Aishah Wahab, a Malaysian student who came to Britain to study in 1968.
Another woman, Sian Davies, who died in 1997, was a high-flying law student who studied at Cheltenham Ladies’ College before being ‘brainwashed’ by the militant communist collective in the 1970s.
She is believed to be the mother of the third alleged slave, 30-year-old Rosie Davies, who is said to have spent most of her life locked up.
Belfast-born Miss Herivel enjoyed a middle-class upbringing near Belfast’s so-called ‘millionaire row’. Her father John, a brilliant mathematician, was recruited from Cambridge University to break German military ciphers at Bletchley Park in January 1940.
After being trained on how to break the German Enigma machine cipher by Alan Turing, the 21-year-old Sidney Sussex College student devised a method of codebreaking that became known as the Herivel Tip, or ‘herivelismus’.
After the war he published a number of books on his work and moved to Belfast to become a lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast. He and his wife Elizabeth, who also worked at Bletchley, later retired to Oxford, where he became a Fellow of All Souls College in 1978.
In the same year Josephine, 22 – the youngest of his three daughters – was arrested for assault and obstructing police in London along with a number of young women who were part of the same revolutionary sect run by ‘Comrade Bala’, Aravindan Balakrishnan.
An ITV film crew who spoke to Josephine at her home in Brixton following the inquest of Sian Davies in 1997 were accused of being agents of a ‘fascist state’.
GP’s daughter Sian Davies was a former Cheltenham Ladies’ College pupil with a ‘bright and promising future’ before she joined the sect. She graduated in law at Aberystwyth University and was studying for a masters degree at the London School of Economics when she became mesmerised by ‘Comrade Bala’ and his group – the Workers’ Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Thought.
The talented cricketer, who once played at Lord’s, grew distant from her family as her involvement with ‘The Collective’ deepened.
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The images, from ITV News, show Balakrishnan, also known as Comrade Bala, attending the inquest into the death of commune member Sian Davies in 1997. The two women following him are believed to be the 'slaves'
ITV News claims two of the alleged victims rescued from the house in Brixton, are in the footage Aishah Wahab - (left) and Josephine (right)
On Christmas Eve, 1996 she was fatally injured after falling out of a bathroom window at a property where she lived with the Balakrishnans.
The 44-year-old was paralysed from the neck down and died seven months later.
Yesterday her cousin Eleri Morgan said she bore a ‘striking resemblance’ to the youngest alleged slave, Rosie.
The 64-year-old retired teacher, who has called for her cousin’s death to be investigated again, said: ‘She had everything going for her, such a promising and bright future.
She met Comrade Bala and his wife whilst at university in London and I don’t know why, but she got sucked into his warped way of thinking and she became brainwashed.’
This is Rosie Davies, the woman said to have been kept as a slave for three decades by a couple who ran a Maoist sect recruiting young women
Miss Morgan said she last spoke to Miss Davies 18 months before her death, when she called to say she was caring for an elderly woman, believed to be Mrs Balakrishnan.
Last night detectives were examining inquest reports into her death in October 1997.
Rosie has told neighbours that her mother died and she was adopted by the suspects.
The video footage filmed in the doorway of a south London property, as they shout at a man who has asked to speak to Comrade Bala.
It reports that a Malaysian woman, seen wearing glasses and a plaid shirt, is believed to be Aishah, a 69-year-old woman Malaysian rescued from the house.
It also claims that a second woman is Josephine, the Irish born 57-year-old also rescued from the house.
She is seen in the footage shouting at the man: 'You're part of the fascist state.'
The Mail can reveal her identity after police confirmed there is no evidence she was sexually abused
It also emerged last night that a woman who may have been 30-year-old Rosie's mother died in mysterious circumstances at a property where the alleged captors previously lived with two other 'slaves'
But the identity of her mother and circumstances of her death remain unclear.
One neighbour who remembered the family living in Herne Hill said an older woman had died falling out of a window there.
Sian Davies - who is thought to be Rosie's mother - is understood to have lived in the commune for more than 20 years
She said: ‘One day the police came and told me an older woman living in that house had died falling out of a window at the back.
'They asked if I had seen anything.
'I said no and they never got back to me.’ Sian Davies, who was living with the family at the time of her death in 1997, is known to have joined the Maoist communist collective that Balakrishnan ran.
In 1978, she was one of six young militant women arrested when police raided their headquarters in a bookshop in Brixton.
A local newspaper report of the case reveals the group’s extremist views as the women chanted slogans calling for the ‘downfall of fascist Britain’ throughout their trial.
The shocked judge in the case, Judge Hayan said he had never come across such bigotry during the proceedings.
All six refused to enter pleas on 13 charges of obstructing or assaulting the police saying they ‘did not recognise the court, the judge of the jury system’
The women also refused to let police search the Brixton property for drugs and chanted ‘Death to the fascist state.’
One of the communists, Aishah Waham then 34, read a prepared statement saying that the British were the lackeys of the Americans.
The report went on: ‘At the end of her speech the six chanted together with upraised right arms and clenched fists.
‘They said they were political prisoners facing trumped up charges.’
Yesterday it emerged that Balakrishnan, and his wife, originally from India and Tanzania, were well known to the police and security services.
Letters sent to Marius Feneck from Rosie - one of the three women held captive in Brixton
Described as a ‘guru’, the economics graduate was said to be a powerful figure who had a tight-knit band of devoted female followers under his ‘spell’, most of whom were persuaded to give up their studies in order to ‘integrate with the working class’ and carry out ‘revolutionary work’.
DID CARLOS THE JACKAL VISIT SECT?
Known as ‘Comrade Bala’, he came to police attention after setting up a communist squat, the Mao Zedong Memorial Centre, in Brixton in 1976 where the couple ran their group, the Workers’ Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Thought, holding lectures and film evenings.
Two years earlier, he had been kicked out of the Communist Party’s national executive after his faction ‘attempted to put themselves above the discipline of the party’.
By the time of the Brixton riots in 1981 their organisation had gone underground where it remained for more than 30 years.
Jesse Paddy, 64, said he had visited the ‘family’ a number of times and the youngest alleged slave even knitted a jumper for him.
The couple arrested on suspicion of false imprisonment and immigration offences have been released on bail until a date in January.
Lambeth Council has come under pressure to explain their contact with the couple as local councillors claim social services, education and housing departments all had contact with them.
A Lambeth Council spokesman said: ‘Lambeth Council worked closely with the police in the weeks leading up to the three women leaving the house and continues to do everything to assist with the police investigation.
‘This is an extremely complex case involving a number of individuals going back decades.
‘It is too early at this stage to provide the detail of any contact we may have had with them.’
Investigation: Police stand guard at the property in Brixton, south London, and are following many lines of inquiry including links to 13 addresses across London
Shut down: The property at the centre of the slavery case was boarded up as police still guarded it, but officials have refused to say why
Kind gift: Alleged prisoner Rosie knitted neighbour Jesse Paddy a jumper, who said he did not know anything about alleged slavery in
the property
Note: Rosie, 30, gave this warm handwritten message to with the garment earlier this year for Mr Paddy
High-flying student turned back on family
Woman believed to be Aishah, the 69-year-old Malaysian one of the victims
The family of a Malaysian student alleged to have been enslaved for 30 years by the extreme Left-wing sect have told of their heartbreak.
Retired teacher Kamar Mautum says one of the three captives freed last month is her sister Aishah Wahab, who disappeared after joining the Maoist faction.
She boarded a flight from Kuala Lumpur to London last night to be reunited with her sister, now aged 69, saying: ‘I have felt so choked without her for years and years.
‘She was so talented; she was the apple of my mother’s eye. She asked for her on her deathbed.’
Miss Wahab is believed to have suffered a stroke while she was allegedly held captive by sect leaders Aravindan Balakrishnan and his partner Chanda, who were arrested in Brixton, South London last week.
Her sister added: ‘This has been a dark age for her and for all of us. I will do anything to bring her home. I want to see her before either of us dies. I am not sure if she will remember me but I am hopeful she will.
‘I hope her health is OK and she is receiving all the help she needs.’ Miss Wahab won a Commonwealth scholarship to study surveying in the UK and moved here in 1968 with her fiance Omar Munir.
But she soon became involved in extremist politics and turned her back on her middle-class upbringing.
Attracted to Balakrishnan’s group, Miss Wahab was so in awe of leader ‘Comrade Bala’ that she and Omar rowed over her ‘loyalty’ to him and eventually split, throwing her engagement ring in the Thames.
The Malaysian government is said to have been wary about her returning home because of her politics. Miss Mautum said their brother, who lived in London, discouraged visits by his Maoist sister.
‘Aishah’s attitude was, “if you don’t want me, fine”. And then she disappeared,’ said Miss Mautum.
The family later asked a prominent Malaysian radical, Ishammuddin Rais, to help find her, without success.
Balakrishnan’s group eventually folded but Miss Wahab is believed to have remained one of his few followers.
A former member claimed she ‘cut herself off from everybody’, adding: ‘She remained with them, was financially dependent on them, had no friends – she became more and more reliant on them.’
Maoist Slavery suspect is a 'toothless old man' not a 'charismatic' leader, claims cousin of sect member who died
Accusations: Eleri Morgan has told ITV News her cousin Sian Davies lived within the collective led by slavery suspect Aravindan Balakrishnan, who she described as a 'toothless old man'
Slavery suspect Aravindan Balakrishnan was more of a 'toothless old man' than a 'charismatic' figure, according to the cousin of a woman who lived in his London commune for more than 20 years.
Eleri Morgan claims her cousin Sian Davies died after in 1997 after mysteriously falling out of a bathroom window in the house the group were living in in Brixton.
Ms Davies was kept in hospital for seven months after the fall, but her family claim they were not told.
She had been jailed three times for her activism before she died, it was revealed today.
Ms Morgan said Ms Davies wrote home talking of how she was looking after the 'mothers of the world' but was not allowed to see her cousin. Her letters always spoke of 'comrade Bala' - the name that Balakrishnan was referred to.
Ms Morgan met Balakrishnan at the inquest into her cousin's death.
She told ITV News: 'I had such a shock because I imagined somebody charismatic and there was this toothless old man - well looked old.'
A senior council source confirmed that Balakrishnan and his wife Chanda were arrested last week by police amid allegations that they held three women for more than 30 years. It is claimed they were leaders of an extremist Maoist collective.
The alleged victims - a 30-year-old Briton, a 57-year-old Irishwoman and a 69-year-old Malaysian - are believed to have suffered years of 'physical and mental abuse' at the hands of the pair.
House-to-house inquiries have been carried out in Peckford Place in Brixton where the three women were found. Police have confirmed that there are ongoing inquiries relating to a total of 13 addresses, all in London, linked to the couple.
Ms Morgan claims her cousin Sian Davies died after in 1997 after mysteriously falling out of a bathroom window in the house the group were living in in Brixton
The couple, aged 73 and 67, are believed to have been well-known to the police in the 1970s after setting up a communist squat, the Mao Zedong Memorial Centre, in Acre Lane, Brixton in 1976.
Ms Morgan recalled that her cousin had a boyfriend called Martin. She told ITV News: 'She was outgoing, we went clubbing in our younger days, enjoyed the good life, and next time I saw her she was in the morgue.
'I picked up the paper and oh my God, Bala and it all came back to me... In the paper it implied they were all foreign students, but earlier they weren't all foreign. I know of Martin and Sian - what he did to our family he did to others.'
A picture of Sian - who was 12 yrs old and at home in Tregaron, Wales, at the time the picture was taken
Sian pictured left as a ten-year-old at home in Tregaron, Wales, and right at 21, at her graduation from Aberystwyth University
This site in Brixton was once the headquarters of the Mao Zedong Memorial Centre - which housed a communist collective run by the slavery case suspects - reportedly Aravindan Balakrishnan, 73, and his wife Chanda, 67
Balakrishnan was a former member of the national executive committee of the Communist party of England (Marxist-Leninist) but documents show he was suspended from the party in 1974 for pursuing 'conspiratorial and splittist activities'.
Documents also show how in 1978 police raided the Mao Zedong Memorial Centre, arresting 14 members of the organisation, including Aravindan Balakrishnan and wife Chanda, referred to as Comrade Chanda.
A source at Lambeth Council said the couple were believed to have been in the property for around 10 years after moving there from a council property, and concerns had previously been raised with police about the education of the youngest woman.
Scotland Yard would not comment on the claims, but previously said two of the victims met the male suspect through a 'shared political ideology', living with him at an address that was effectively called a 'collective'.
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