A 73-year-old was recently arrested along with his wife, 67.
They are suspected of holding three women captive in a south London flat for 30 years
1. He is believed to be Aravindan Balakrishnan aka "Comrade Bala". His wife is called Chanda.
2. Balakrishnan was suspended from the Communist Party of England in 1974 for "splittist activities" and "spreading social fascist slanders":
Comrade Bala set up the Brixton institute, taking with him a small faction of Maoist fanatics.
4. They were noted in the Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations for their "strange political pronouncements".
The clearest case of far-left millenarianism which I have encountered, …a tiny Maoist sect with about 25 members, located in the Brixton area. …In 1977, they confidently predicted that the world would be liberated from capitalist oppression by the Chinese People's Liberation Army before the end of the year.
6. This is a 1977 Times report on the Brixton Institute. It's believed such reports inspired the classic BBC sitcom Citizen Smith.
7. According to one Marxist website, he and his wife "Comrade Chanda" were arrested in 1978 in a police raid which drove them underground.
