Alternative healer jailed for 15 years for killing woman during ‘slapping therapy’ workshop
An alternative healer has been jailed for 15 years for the manslaughter of a diabetic women who died in one of his ‘slapping therapy’ workshops.
Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, died while taking part in the Paida Lajin therapy event run by Hongchi Xiao at Cleeve House in Seend, Wiltshire.
The sessions involve patients being slapped or slapping themselves repeatedly.
Mrs Carr-Gomm had stopped taking her insulin and became seriously ill while going to the workshops, which were part of a week-long retreat.
Xiao, from Cloudbreak, California, was found guilty by a jury in July at Winchester Crown Court of manslaughter by gross negligence after he failed to get medical help for Mrs Carr-Gomm.
The 15-year sentence includes five years on extended licence after leaving jail.
Xiao had been extradited for the trial from Australia, where he had been prosecuted over the death of six-year-old boy, who died after his parents withdrew his insulin medication after attending Xiao’s workshops.
Mrs Carr-Gomm, who was diagnosed with diabetes in 1999, had been ‘howling in pain’ and ‘frothing at the mouth’ on the third and fourth day of Xiao’s retreat before dying at Cleeve House.
In a broadcast sentencing of Xiao on Friday, Mr Justice Bright said: ‘I sentence you on the basis you knew from late in the afternoon of day one of the fact that Danielle Carr-Gomm had stopped taking her insulin. Furthermore you made it clear to her you supported this.’
The judge said Xiao made a ‘token effort’ to get her to take her insulin which was too little, too late, and showed ‘no real sign of clear remorse’ as he continues to practice and promote Paida Laijin while he’s been in prison.
‘I consider you dangerous even though you do not share the characteristics of most other dangerous offenders,’ he added.
Mrs Carr-Comm had wanted alternatives to her insulin due to having a fear of needles and being vegetarian, the court heard.
She had provided Xiao with a testimonial where she described him asa ‘messenger sent by God’ who was ‘starting a revolution to put the power back in the hands of the people to cure themselves and to change the whole system of health care’.
She joined the Paida Lajin workshop, which means ‘slap and stretch’, run by Xiao in Wiltshire in October 2016, after taking part in one in Bulgaria in July.
She had also stopped her insulin medication in Bulgaria, becoming seriously ill before recovering.
When Mrs Carr-Gomm told the workshop group she had stopped taking insulin Xiao said ‘well done,’ the court heard.
By the third day of the retreat she had started vomiting, and was tired and weak, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC said.
‘By the evening she was howling in pain and unable to respond to questions,’ he added.
A chef at the venue, Teresa Hayes, told jurors she wanted to call an ambulance but trusted those with more experience of the holistic healing method.
Mr Atkinson described how Xiao failed to get medical help for Mrs Carr-Gomm before she died in the early hours of the fourth day.
The prosecutor said: ‘Those who had received and accepted the defendant’s teachings misinterpreted Mrs Carr-Gomm’s condition as a healing crisis.’
He said Xiao had been an ‘exponent’ of Paida Lajin for 10 years and had written a book on it.
‘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,’ Mr Atkinson told the court.
‘He does not have medical qualifications or training,’ he added.
Speaking after the verdict in July, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service special crime division, Rosemary Ainslie, said: Hongchi Xiao knew the consequences of Danielle Carr-Gomm’s decision to stop taking insulin could be fatal, he had seen it before.
‘Hongchi Xiao was the man in charge, yet he failed to respond to Mrs Carr-Gomm’s worsening condition, with tragic consequences.
‘His failure to take reasonable steps to help Mrs Carr-Gomm substantially contributed to her death and amounted to gross negligence.’
Mrs Carr-Gomm was born in France and moved to the UK when she was 21.
Following her death, her son, Matthew Carr-Gomm, who lives in New Zealand, said: ‘She 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.
‘I know she was desperate to try and cure herself of this disease.
‘She always maintained a healthy lifestyle and was adamant that nothing would stop her from living a full life.
‘In recent years, mum was in a great place with a partner, a lovely home and was travelling the world. She had a lot of life left in her.’
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