The Workers’ Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

In October of 2013, the British organisation Freedom Charity received a call on their hotline. The woman on the other end said that her housemate had been held captive in South London for 30 years.

At the time of this call, Katy Morgan-Davies was 30 years old, and the period of her imprisonment was her entire life. She, and the women she lived with, believed that an invisible machine called JACKIE could control household appliances, read their thoughts, and would incinerate them if they tried to escape the man they called ‘Comrade Bala’ – who was the covert leader of the world, and, in fact, God himself.

EPISODE LINKS

• Caged Bird — by Katy Morgan-Davies, Random House, 2018
• The Cult Next Door — BBC documentary directed by Vanessa Engle, 2017
• Aravindan Balakrishnan: the Maoist cult leader who used brutal violence and rape to strip women of their dignity — by Victoria Ward, The Telegraph, 4 December 2015
• Thirty Years in Captivity — by Simon Parkin, The New Yorker, 3 December 2016
• The Classification and Dynamics of Sectarian Forms of Organisation: Grid/Group Perspectives on the Far-Left in Britain — by Stephen Frank Rayner, PhD thesis for University College London, 1979
• Statements of the National Executive Committee, CPE (ML) — Transcription, Editing and Markup by Sam Richards and Paul Saba for the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line – first published in The Marxist-Leninist, (Internal Discussion journal of the Communist Party of England (Marxist-Leninist)) Vol. 1, No. 1, September 1974
• Maoist cult follower: “I think he’s being framed” — Channel 4 News segment with Josephine Herivel, 4 December 2015
• Maoist cult leader Aravindan Balakrishnan jailed for 23 years — by Hardeep Matharu, the Independent, 29 January 2016
• The radical ideological background of 'slave women' suspects — by Jake Wallis Simons, The Telegraph, 24 November 2013
• Slavery case: suspects named as former Maoist collective leaders — by Martin Evans, The Telegraph, 25 November 2013
• Cultists & communists – too close to us for comfort — by Nick Cohen, The Spectator, 25 November 2013
• Alleged slaves pictured in 1997 ITV documentary footage — The Telegraph, 26 November 2013
• Slavery case: our beautiful girl has gone, but she is still my beloved sister— by Sarah Rainey, The Telegraph, 30 November 2013
• London cult: The past is the past, says Aishah's sister — by Nur Aqidah Azizi, New Straits Times, 30 January 2017
• Sect leader's daughter inspired by Harry Potter books to fight him, court told — by Sandra Laville, The Guardian, 20 November 2015
• Maoist sect leader's conviction may reopen commune death inquiry — by Robert Booth, The Guardian, 5 December 2015
• Who were the women who formed Balakrishnan's Maoist collective? — by Victoria Ward, The Telegraph, 4 December 2015
• Maoist cult leader Comrade Bala framed by state say backers — by Robert Booth, The Guardian, 29 January 2016
• Maoist cult chief Aravindan Balakrishnan claims challenge to his leadership caused space shuttle disaster — by Paul Peachey, The Independent, 26 November 2015
• Comrade Bala: How the brutal cult chief chronicled every detail of his tyranny — by Paul Peachey, The Independent, 4 December 2015
• Maoist cult leader used mind control to 'manacle' followers, court hears— The Telegraph, 16 November 2015
• Slavery case: woman describes cousin's time in Brixton commune — The Telegraph, 26 November 2013
• Suspect in Marxist 'slave' case released without charge — by Martin Evans, The Telegraph, 24 September 2014
• Maoist cult leader father kept me a slave for 30 years - but I would forgive him — by Giulia Rhodes, Sunday Express, 30 April 2018
• Woman describes being held captive by London cult for 30 years — by Toby Meyjes, Metro, 18 January 2017
• The musical prodigy who threw her life away for 'teacher' — by Deborah McAleese, Belfast Telegraph, 5 December 2015
• Three women rescued after 'decades of slavery' in south London home— by Josh Halliday and Peter Walker, The Guardian, 22 November 2013
• 'Slave keepers' were members of cultlike political group — by Peter Walker and Josh Halliday, The Guardian, 26 November 2013
• How Chairman Mao of Brixton built his sect of 'slaves’ — by Patrick Sawer, Claire Duffin and Robert Mendick, The Telegraph, 1 December 2013
• 'My father was a cult leader. I was his human experiment' — Vanessa Engle, as told to Margarette Driscoll, The Telegraph, 22 January 2017
• Growing up a prisoner in a cult — by Vanessa Engle, BBC, 26 January 2017
• Modern Slavery – Katy’s Life After 30 Years of Captivity — Case study on the Palm Cove Society website, 26 April 2018
• My 30 years as prisoner of a London cult — by Rachel Cooke, The Guardian, 22 January 2017
• London cult: Aishah reveals all in documentary — by Zaharah Othman, New Straits Times, 28 January 2017
• Trapped in a London cult for 30 years — Kirsty Wark video interview with Katy Morgan-Davies, Newsnight, BBC, 30 April 2018
• Maoist cult leader Aravindan Balakrishnan guilty of sex assaults — BBC, 4 December 2015
• Comrade Bala: Daughter of jailed cult leader waives right of anonymity to reclaim suppressed identity — by Paul Peachey, The Independent, 29 January 2016
• Maoist 'cult' leader denies rape as he claims female commune members competed for his affections — by Victoria Ward, The Telegraph, 26 November 2015
• When a friend won't walk away from abuse — by Sarah LeTrent, CNN, 10 January 2013
• Slavery case: the high-flying student who vanished into a Maoist sect — by Dean Nelson, in Kuala Lumpur and Martin Evans, The Telegraph, 26 November 2013
• Maoist cult leader sexually assaulted followers and kept daughter as slave for 30 years, court hears — by Gordon Rayner and Victoria Ward, The Telegraph, 12 November 2015
• Inquest into the death of mother of Balakrishnan's child 'could be reopened' — by Victoria Ward, The Telegraph, 4 December 2015