Alternative healer Hongchi Xiao guilty of manslaughter over woman’s death at palm therapy workshop | UK news

An alternative healer has been found guilty of the grossly negligent manslaughter of a diabetic woman who died after she stopped taking her insulin at his palmistry workshop.

Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, was one of 30 “eager disciples” of Hongchi Xiao who attended the week-long retreat at Cleeve House in Seend, Wiltshirein October 2016, Winchester Crown Court heard.

Xiao, 61, who has no medical qualifications or training, has for 10 years been an “exponent” of paida lajin therapy – which sees patients repeatedly slapping or slapping themselves – and has written a book about it.

Mrs Carr-Gomm, from Lewes, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1998 and sought alternatives to insulin medication because of vegetarianism and a fear of needles.

The court heard Xiao, who was described as ‘Master Xiao’ in the workshop programme, said ‘well done’ after telling the group she had stopped taking insulin.

But he got seriously ill and it was “Crying on her bed and howling in pain” before dying of diabetic ketoacidosis on the fourth day of the course on October 20, 2016.

“He’s seen her before”

Prosecutors said the therapist, of Cloudbreak, Calif., knew she was at risk of death and did not seek medical help for her.

Xiao denied a charge of gross negligence manslaughter and told jurors he would “never talk” someone into not taking their insulin, but was found guilty after a trial.

The court heard he was previously convicted in an Australian court of the manslaughter of a six-year-old boy who died in April 2015, 18 months before Ms Carr-Gomm, when his parents stopped taking care of him insulin after attending one of Xiao’s workshops. in Sydney.

The young man became seriously ill and began to “spew black fluid”, which Xiao attributed to “just part of the body’s self-healing adaptation”, the jury said.

Rosemary Ainslie, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s special crimes division, said after the verdict that Xiao “knew the consequences of Danielle Carr-Gomm’s decision to stop her insulin could be fatal, she had seen it before”.

She added: “Hongchi Xiao was the man responsible but failed to respond to Ms Carr-Gomm’s worsening condition with tragic consequences.

“His failure to take reasonable steps to assist Ms Carr-Gomm contributed substantially to her death and constituted gross negligence.”

“Learned from kung fu masters”

Xiao told jurors he quit working in finance in the early 2000s because he “wanted to do something more meaningful” and traveled to the mountains of China, where he learned various natural healing methods from fishermen to kung fu masters.

He said he studied methods such as acupuncture, cupping and massage and practiced natural healing in Tibet, where he was invited by monks and stayed in a monastery that treated 100 people a day before learning paida lajin.

Meaning “slap and stretch”, it is said to be a self-healing method where “poisonous waste” is expelled from the body by slapping and slapping body parts.

Read more:
Temperatures will rise in the UK
The crocodiles take the corpses of the victims
Man, 75, shot in the field

Footage from a 2015 lecture in India shows Xiao teaching attendees how to slap the insides of their elbows while telling them, “No pain, no gain.”

He brings a man on stage, who says he has a heart condition, and slaps him on the arm to enlarge the bruise, telling the crowd, “That’s what we call poison blood.”

“The harder, the more, the faster it disappears,” says Xiao.

“Messenger sent by God”

Ms Carr-Gomm first joined one of Xiao’s workshops in Bulgaria in July 2016, where she fell ill and stopped taking her insulin.

In a video testimonial, she addresses Xiao as “master” and says: “You are definitely a messenger from God because you are starting a revolution to put the power back into the hands of people to heal and change. the whole healthcare system”.

The court heard participants at the Wiltshire retreat signed a disclaimer saying the practice was not “intended for medical treatment” and fasted for several days, consuming only Chinese tea.

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC said Ms Carr-Gomm’s decision to stop taking insulin injections came amid Xiao’s “evangelistic exposure” “that insulin was poison and paida lajin was an alternative”.

“He knew Ms Carr-Gomm was at risk of death and he knew he had an influence on her decision,” he told jurors during the trial.

“In short, therefore, he chose to congratulate a diabetic who stopped taking injections, rather than to persuade them not to take such a serious risk with their lives.”

Not a doctor

Giving evidence, Xiao said he was “not a doctor, so everyone is responsible for their own medicine”.

“Secondly, I’m not completely against medication, what worries me is the side effect of the medication,” he said.

“To stop the medication, there is a condition, you don’t do it all at once, you do it gradually – you always have to check.”

Specialist prosecutor Ben Southam said manslaughter convictions were still quite rare, but Xiao’s case was “particularly unusual”.

“I think he is dangerous because he practices a method of self-healing that is not recognized in Chinese medicine and in two workshops he conducted two people died,” he said.

“Danielle also suffered a severe reaction in a previous workshop in July 2016 in Bulgaria.”