‘Slapping therapist’ found guilty of manslaughter after woman dies at workshop

An alternative healer Hongchi Xiao has been found guilty after the death of a diabetic grandmother at his ‘slap therapy’ workshop.

Mr Xiao, 61, has been found guilty of the gross negligence manslaughter that killed Danielle Carr-Gomm at a retreat in Wiltshire in 2016.

The 71-year-old from Lewes, East Sussex, had attended a ‘slap and stretch’ therapy workshop in a bid to find an alternative to her insulin medication for Type 1 diabetes because of her fear of needles and vegetarianism, Winchester Crown Court heard.

But instead of help, she died at Cleeve House in Seend, Wiltshire, while taking part in the Paida Lajin therapy event, during which patients are being slapped or slap themselves repeatedly.

The healer failed to get medical help for Mrs Carr-Gomm who was ‘delirious’ and ‘frothing at the mouth’ before she died, a chef at the workshop told jurors.

This is the second manslaughter conviction for Mr Xiao after he was previously prosecuted over the death of a six-year-old boy in Australia.

The boy died after his parents withdrew his insulin after attending a workshop by Mr Xiao, which led to the child becoming seriously ill and ‘vomiting black liquid.’

The man was extradited for the trial from Australia where he had been found guilty for the boy’s death in Sydney.

She was ‘howling in pain’ before she died

Before Mrs Carr-Gomm died, she wanted to call an ambulance, but she ended up trusting those with more experience in the holistic healing method, the chef told the jury at the trial.

She had first joined a workshop run by Mr Xiao in Bulgaria in July 2016. Following the first event, she became seriously ill after stopping her insulin medicine before resuming it and recovering.

But the second such workshop ended up costing her life in October of the same year.

The court heard how Mr Xiao said ‘well done’ to Mrs Carr-Gomm after she revealed to the group she had stopped her insulin at the week-long retreat.

She then became seriously ill again as she was ‘vomiting, tired and weak, and by the evening she was howling in pain and unable to respond to questions,’ prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC told the court.

Her son Matthew Carr-Gomm, who lives in New Zealand, said after her death that his mother was ‘always keen to try and find alternative methods of treating and dealing with her diabetes, and was very interested in alternative and holistic medicine and therapies.’

She was ‘desperate to try and cure herself,’ he said.

Her death came as a ‘huge shock’ to the family of Mrs Carr-Gomm who had ‘a lot of life left in her,’ he said.

Mr Xiao told the court in his evidence he would ‘never’ persuade someone who needed insulin not to take it, adding that insulin is ‘useful.’

He said: ‘First of all, I said I’m not a medical doctor, so everyone is responsible for their own medication.

‘Secondly, I’m not fully against medicine, what I’m concerned about is the side effect of the medicine.’

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