A cult leader who claimed to be a disciple of the Dalai Lama raped a series of women after seducing them with his luxurious lifestyle, a court was told.
Michael Lyons, 52, a self-styled guru who masqueraded as a spiritual healer, attacked seven vulnerable women over a ten-year period, jurors were told.
Mr Lyons, who used the name Mohan Singh or Mo, had a penthouse apartment in Belsize Park and was driven around in Bentley and Mercedes cars.
He surrounded himself with a group of "young, charming" female followers who were responsible for recruiting new members who were then drawn into estrangement from friends, family and jobs.
Jurors were told that Mr Lyons would ply the new recruits with drinks that made them drowsy before burning mysterious herbs and using "mumbo jumbo" to explain what he was doing.
He would then give his victims acupuncture or massages before raping and sexually assaulting them, Wood Green Crown Court was told.
Philip Katz, QC, for the prosecution, described Mr Lyons as a "sexual predator masquerading as a guru and a healer" who would at first come across as "charismatic, charming and reassuring". Before long however his behaviour turned "controlling, aggressive and sinister".
The alleged assaults began with an American backpacker in July 1998 and finished in July 2008. All seven victims were vulnerable and one specifically suffered from mental health problems, it is claimed.
Mr Lyons, of Brondesbury Park, North London, was first arrested in 1998 but no charges were brought against him.
He was rearrested in 2007 and ordered to live in Manchester as part of his bail conditions, where he allegedly committed two further offences.
He was then arrested the next year for the third time when the sister of one of the victims claimed she was being brainwashed.
The prosecution said all seven victims told similar stories of being seduced by Mr Lyons’s luxurious but religious lifestyle and believing his claims that he had worked with the Dalai Lama and was a trained acupuncturist and osteopath.
One of his alleged victims was enticed into his cult after being promised he would make her a film star. It is alleged that on one occasion the former Stringfellows dancer was being given a massage by the defendant when he started to rape her.
During the assault he told her he had an "organic penis" and would "get up and dance around as if there was some kind of ritual going on".
Another woman said she felt "brainwashed" after spending a week with Lyons and his alleged cult in October 2005, the court was told.
She met the defendant in the Fresh and Wild shop in Soho where he told her he was an osteopath, it is claimed.
He began manipulating her back in the store and told her he worked for the Dalai Lama, the court was told. She was then taken back to the Belsize Park penthouse where she was raped.
Mr Katz said that after the first attack she was bombarded with texts and voicemails by women in the group who "smothered her in attention".
"She began to feel that she was being brainwashed, manipulated, and that her confidence was being undermined," Mr Katz told jurors. She claimed to have been raped days later after a therapy session involving cups.
Mr Lyons denies five charges of rape, two charges of sexual assault and one of assault by penetration.
The trial, expected to last three months, continues.
