A serial rapist "masquerading as a guru" was helped by groups of women to lure in female victims, a UK court heard yesterday.

Michael Lyons, who used the name Mohan Singh, surrounded himself with "young, charming" women who told others that he could change their lives.

He is accused of taking advantage of "vulnerable" people, plying them with drinks which made them feel confused and creating a cult-like atmosphere by burning mysterious herbs.

Under the pretext of bogus health treatments he would give his victims acupuncture or massages before raping or sexually assaulting them.

Mr Lyons, 52, from Brondesbury Park in Kilburn, north London, even persuaded one of the women, who was mentally ill, that she had been sexually abused by her parents.

Prosecutor Philip Katz QC told Wood Green Crown Court: "He is a sexual predator masquerading as a guru and a healer. He has for many years now been at the centre of a group of followers, overwhelmingly women, some of whom have been part of his circle for many years. The prosecution allege that this group...has actually been operating as a kind of cult."

He said that the victims were all "vulnerable women for a variety of reasons" and were sucked into the group, reassured by the presence of other females.

"Some of the existing members were actually actively helping to create opportunities for this defendant to take sexual advantage of new recruits," Mr Katz said.

Mr Katz added: "They were soon invited to his home or wherever he was staying, in the company of other young, friendly, charming women, often of their own age. They found that reassuring because here was a man surrounded by other young, charming, friendly, happy women."

However Mr Lyons and his followers quickly became controlling, the court heard, and stopped the women from leaving.

Mr Lyons is accused of five counts of rape, two of sexual assault by touching and one by penetration committed on seven women between 1998 and 2008.

Mr Lyons often told women that he was an osteopath and could cure back problems, as well as other physical or mental disorders.

He would insist that he was not sexually interested in them, but "became suddenly very sexual and aggressive", Mr Katz said.

The women were drawn in with claims that he had worked for the Dalai Lama, and he would drive them around in expensive cars.

After they had escaped the group, they received menacing email and text messages from other members, it is claimed.

Giving evidence via video link from Washington DC, one of the victims described how she met two of Mr Lyons' female followers in the street in London while she was backpacking around Europe in 1998.

They took her to a meeting where the self-styled healer advised her to stop taking medication for mental health problems which had emerged 18 months earlier.

She told the court: "He was very nonchalant about the concept of medicine and laughed. He was very clear about his distaste for taking medicine for mental health conditions."

Mr Lyons claimed that he could cure her, starting with seeing a chiropractor, even though she did not have a back problem.

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