‘Slapping therapist’ found guilty of grossly negligent manslaughter | Crime

An alternative healer who promoted a ‘palm therapy’ adopted by millions around the world has been found guilty of the gross negligence manslaughter of a British woman who died at one of his workshops.

Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, who had type 1 diabetes, became fatally ill in 2016 after stopping her insulin and fasting during a paida lajin therapy retreat led by Hongchi Xiao at a country house in Wiltshire.

The prosecution argued that Xiao, 61, who is called “the master” by his followers, was in charge of the workshop and owed a duty of care to Carr-Gomm.

They said he was grossly negligent because he failed to take reasonable steps to encourage her to take insulin and seek medical help when clearly needed. When she became seriously ill, crying in pain and losing weight, Xiao attributed her decline to a “healing crisis”.

After the verdict, Carr-Gomm’s son said on behalf of the family that Xiao was a “complete fraud”.

“While we can’t bring our mother back, we hope this case at least highlights the dangers of pursuing unregulated alternative therapies without proper research,” he said.

“Our mother’s motivation was to live, and if she hadn’t been betrayed by this man she trusted to take care of her, she wouldn’t have knowingly risked her life like this.”

The prosecution said Xiao should have been fully aware of the danger Carr-Gomm was in because a year before a six-year-old boy with type 1 diabetes had died at a workshop he ran in Australia, after Xiao told his mother to stop giving. he insulin. Xiao was convicted of manslaughter over the boy’s death in 2019 and sentenced to prison.

During the trial at Winchester Crown Court, Xiao described how he learned paida lajin from kung fu masters and hermits in the mountains of China and spread the “forgotten” method to “millions” of people around the world.

Xiao, who was born in China, said he gave up a lucrative career in finance to focus on paida lajin and was not in it to make money. He said the technique, which involves clapping and stretching, was easy to learn, helped address every ailment known to man and reduced the need for patients to take “Western” drugs with “poisonous” side effects.

Xiao said he was not a doctor and it was up to the participants in his workshops to continue taking the conventional medicines they needed. He said Carr-Gomm, from East Sussex, was stubborn and chose not to take his medication or listen to his advice. He said: “I am not her protector. I was just her teacher.”

Xiao said the death of the Australian boy and Carr-Gomm had led to the “demonisation” of paida lajin and suggested it had been deliberately discredited by “Western doctors” and alternative practitioners as it put them out of work.

The trial heard that Carr-Gomm, who had a long-standing interest in alternative medicine, was keen to reduce or stop insulin injections and considered Xiao a “messenger sent by God” to bring about a revolution in medicine. Carr-Gomm’s family and friends said she turned to alternative therapies because she was afraid of needles and was a vegetarian. They told the Guardian they were shocked to hear during the trial how much she had suffered.

Her ex-husband Philip Carr-Gomm, a psychotherapist and writer, said: ‘None of us knew the pain she went through at the end. I thought he just went to sleep and didn’t wake up.”

He said their younger son left it at the workshop at Cleeve House in Wiltshire. “Next thing the police came to his apartment to tell him what happened.”

Philip Carr-Gomm said Xiao should have known the danger he was in, given the boy’s death in Australia. “You would think any sane and responsible person would be aware of the risk to begin with, but if there was such a dire situation, you wouldn’t repeat it.”

Xiao will be sentenced on October 1.