‘Slapping therapy healer’ who killed woman is practising his methods in prison

An alternative “healer” jailed for 10 years after a diabetic grandmother died at one of his slap therapy workshops is continuing to promote the practice in prison.

Hongchi Xiao, who believes Western medicine is “poisonous”, was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence following a trial at Winchester Crown Court in July this year. He has been in detainment since the trial.

Danielle Carr-Gomm died while taking part in a week-long “Paida Lajin”, meaning “slap and stretch”, retreat in Wiltshire in 2016.

The 71-year-old, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1999, died in agony after she was encouraged to stop taking insulin during the workshop by Xiao.

Xiao, 61, was extradited to the UK from Australia, where he had previously been prosecuted after a six-year old boy died when his parents withdrew his insulin medication after attending one of his workshops in Sydney.

On Friday, he was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison, plus a five-year extended licence period, over the death of Mrs Carr-Gomm by judge Mr Justice Robert Bright.

Mr Justice Bright said that Xiao knew from the first day of the therapy workshop that Mrs Carr-Gomm had stopped taking her medication. “Furthermore you made it clear to her you supported this,” he said.

He said Xiao made a “token effort” to get her to take her insulin which was “too little, too late”.

He added that he showed “no real sign of clear remorse” as he continued to practise and promote Paida Lajin in prison.

“I consider you dangerous even though you do not share the characteristics of most other dangerous offenders,” he said.

The judge said that Xiao’s suggestion during the trial that Mrs Carr-Gomm was ultimately responsible for her own death was “repugnant and disturbing”.

Jurors were told Mrs Carr-Gomm had sought alternatives to her insulin medication because of her vegetarianism and fear of needles.

She joined the Paida Lajin workshop run by Xiao in Wiltshire in October 2016.

She previously attended another in Bulgaria in July, where she also stopped her insulin medication and became seriously ill.

The court heard that Xiao said “well done” to Mrs Carr-Gomm, after she told the participants in Wiltshire that she had stopped taking her insulin at the retreat.

By the third day “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 said.

A chef at the workshop, Teresa Hayes, told jurors she wanted to call an ambulance but trusted those with more experience of the holistic healing method.

Mr Atkinson said: “Those who had received and accepted the defendant’s teachings misinterpreted Mrs Carr-Gomm’s condition as a healing crisis.”

He said Xiao, who had no medical qualifications or training, had been an “exponent” of Paida Lajin for 10 years and had written a book on it.

Mr Atkinson said: “It is said to be a method of self-healing in which ‘poisonous waste’ is expelled from the body through patting and slapping parts of the body.”

Charles Row KC, mitigating on Xiao’s behalf, said Mrs Carr-Gomm knew how to treat her condition and had insulin with her but acknowledged Xiao’s “ego” had got in the way.

He added: “This Paida Lajin is slapping and stretching, it is in and of itself safe, but it does need to be explained properly.”

Detective Chief Inspector Phil Walker, of the Major Crime Investigation Team at Wiltshire Police, said: “This has been an extremely complex investigation, with nearly eight years having passed since Danielle’s sad death.

“This passage of time, which has been out of our control, has of course added further challenges and complications to the investigation, but I am pleased that a custodial sentence has now been given to Xiao.”

DCI Walker said that Xiao “knew full well” what the consequences of people not taking their insulin would be but encouraged them to do so regardless.