A man in the UK has been sentenced to 10 years in jail, plus a five-year extended licence period after advocating ‘slapping therapy’ which led to the death of a woman at one of his healing camps. The man, identified as Hongchi Xiao, 61, was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter of 71-year-old Danielle Carr-Gomm who visited his week-long retreat at Cleeve House in Seend, Wiltshire, in October 2016. While handing out the sentence, Justice Robert Bright at the Winchester Crown Court held Mr Xiao responsible for Ms Carr-Gomm’s “untimely death” which was a “tragedy for her and all of those who loved her”.
“You failed to summon emergency medical care when you of all people knew she was likely to die without insulin,” said Mr Bright, adding: “I consider you dangerous even though you do not share the characteristics of most other dangerous offenders.”
Ms Carr-Gomm was a diabetes patient since 1998 and had sought alternatives to her insulin medication due to her fear of needles. Mr Xiao promoted paida lajin (meaning “slapping and stretching”) therapy in which patients slapped themselves repeatedly to release “poisonous waste” from the body. The technique finds mention in Chinese medicine but doctors say it has no scientific basis and often leaves the patients bruised, bleeding or in some cases, dead.
As Ms Carr-Gomm stopped taking insulin at Mr Xiao’s insistence, her health deteriorated. By day three, she was “vomiting, tired and howling in pain”, according to the prosecutors. Despite her condition, Mr Xiao did not summon an emergency medical team.
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‘Complex investigation’
Detective Chief Inspector Phil Walker of the Major Crime Investigation Team said he was glad that the case had come to an end after a long-drawn eight-year legal battle.
“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,” Mr Walker told reporters outside the court.
Notably, Mr Xiao was extradited for trial from Australia where he had been prosecuted for the death of a six-year-old boy who also succumbed after his parents withdrew his insulin medication, based on the defendant’s workshop in Sydney. Throughout the trial, Mr Xiao pleaded not guilty.
