Charles Manson's youngest follower has told how she turned against the twisted cult leader and escaped after he raped her in a caravan.

Dianne Lake was a vulnerable 14-year-old who was looking for a place to belong when she joined the Manson Family's desert commune in California in 1967.

Mrs Lake, known in the group as "Snake", was drawn to "impish" Manson, then aged 33, because he had an "uncanny ability to become whoever we needed".

It seemed to be an idyllic existence until Manson raped her in a caravan – telling her "that's the way we do it in prison" – and she later found out the cult was behind the Tate-LaBianca murders in 1969.

Mrs Lake, now 66, turned against the cult and helped put Manson away for life.

Speaking to the Dr Oz Show in an episode set to air on Thursday, she said she had no inkling of the terrifying things on the horizon when she met Manson and his followers.

She told host Mehmet Oz: "When I met Charlie and the girls, he was just another guru leader of a commune.

“I was very vulnerable. I just wanted a place to feel like I belonged. At 14, we really are extremely naive and vulnerable.”

She was drawn to Manson because he offered something that was missing in her life.

Mrs Lake, who has written a book about her experience, said: “He had this uncanny ability to become whoever we needed, and he could read our weaknesses and where we were broken, and he could fill in the gaps.”

"He was a fun-loving, and kind of playful, and impish.

"But yet, he was a good lover. He made me feel like a woman and the girls, it contributed to that feeling because I had sisters.

"So I had mums, sisters, brother, father, a lover, all kind of rolled up into one.”

But all changed when Manson raped her in a caravan.

She later found out that the cult had murdered five people, including pregnant actress and model Sharon Tate, 26, in August 1969.

"When did you begin to question the life Charles Manson had created for you,” Dr Oz asked in the interview.

Mrs Lake replied: “He took me into this little gypsy caravan and sodomized me and said, "That's the way we do it in prison." I never trusted him after that.”

Dr Oz asked: “So the summer of '69, during this Manson family murderous spree, where were you?”

Mrs Lake said: “We were on our way to the desert, up to Barker Ranch, and I was there with Tex Watson. I came into the campground and he had a newspaper with the headlines about the Tate-LaBianca murders. He slapped it and said, 'I did this.' Charlie told me to.'"

Since escaping, Mrs Lake gave evidence in the trial and wrote a book on her experiences.

Member of the Family: My Story of Charles Manson, Life Inside His Cult, and the Darkness That Ended the Sixties can be bought in some shops or on online retailers, including Amazon and eBay.

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