Cult leader gets 10 years for rape

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LONDON, July 27 (UPI) -- A man who used his self-awarded standing as a Buddhist leader to sexually assault women has been sentenced to 10 years in a British prison.

Michael Lyons, 51, who used the name Mohan Singh, appeared in a London court Monday, The Daily Mail reported. He was sentenced for the rape of one woman and a sexual assault on another, but investigators say he may have molested hundreds of women in both Britain and the United States.

Judge Nicolas Browne in Wood Green Crown Court had hard words for Lyons and for some of his female disciples. The judge said they abetted his sexual predation.

"They well knew what was likely to happen to both victims before their sexual abuse," the judge said. "Women's groups everywhere will be shocked and appalled in the complicity in these two crimes of women close to you. It was complete betrayal by women to women."

One woman said she met Lyons in Washington, where he told her he was the Dalai Lama's osteopath. She said he and his followers engaged her in a discussion about Buddhism, and she arranged to meet Lyons the next day, when she was raped, the newspaper said.