The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court that over several years after she had joined the commune in 1976 Aravindan Balakrishnan hit her and told her he could easily kill her using a pressure point on her throat.
She said that by 1980, when he allegedly forced her into sex acts, she had lost her ability to resist. The jury heard that other women in the commune were also forced to have sex with him, and were given one hour slots in which to see him, The Guardian reported.
The woman said she had been frightened of Balakrishnan, and that over several years of being harangued and beaten for saying or doing things that he said indicated bourgeois tendencies or the infiltration of "fascist agents" into her thinking, he had achieved "a sense of absolute power and control" over her body and mind.
Last week, the Southwark Crown Court was told that Balakrishnan raped female followers and imprisoned his own daughter for 30 years after brainwashing them into believing he was an all-powerful and all-seeing leader.
Balakrishnan faces charges, including rape, sexual assault and assault of two women, and wrongful imprisonment and child cruelty in respect of his daughter, who was born in the secretive commune and only escaped in 2013 aged 30.
He has pleaded not guilty to all counts.