A self-described rabbi arrested this week on suspicion of enslaving and sexually abusing dozens of women and children in an overcrowded Jerusalem compound has been named as Aharon Ramati.

Police arrested the 60-year-old on Monday on suspicion that he was running a cult at the Be’er Miriam seminary in the city’s Geula neighbourhood.

Officials said his establishment had been operating for years in the Bukharim Quarter, near the city centre, under the guise of a women’s seminary.

The Times of Israel reported it was in fact home to as many 50 women living in overcrowded, deprived conditions with poor sanitation.

Some of the women said they had been sexually exploited and now had young children, aged between 12 months and five years, who were regularly taken away and held in seclusion, the newspaper said.

“What happened at the seminar was not Torah-learning,” a police representative said during Monday’s court hearing.

“The girls learned to obey the cult leader. They invited women to Shabbat meals. The rabbi knows how to talk to women. Slowly they scared them and separated them from their families.”

Mr Ramati, whose status as a rabbi is unclear, was arrested on suspicion of similar crimes in four years ago, Haaretz reported, but was released after women in his compound testified on his behalf.

This week’s arrest took place after women at the seminary reported fresh allegations to the police.

Speaking outside a Jerusalem court on Monday, Mr Ramat said the allegations were “beyond nonsense” and “ludicrous”, adding: “Nobody believes this is true.”

Of the children discovered by police in the compound, he said it was “maybe my grandchildren who came for a visit.”