'Slapping therapy' healer jailed over death of woman at Wiltshire workshop

An alternative healer who promoted a "slapping therapy" taken up by millions of people across the world was jailed yesterday for the gross negligence manslaughter of a woman who died at one of his workshops in Wiltshire.

- Steven Morris

Hongchi Xiao was sentenced to 15 years after a jury found him guilty of the manslaughter of Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, who had type 1 diabetes and fell fatally ill after she stopped taking her insulin and fasted during one of his paida lajin therapy retreats.

The prosecution argued Xiao had a duty of care towards Carr-Gomm and failed to take reasonable steps to encourage her to take insulin and to summon medical help when it was clearly required.

When she became seriously ill at the workshop in a country house in 2016, Xiao blamed her decline on a "healing crisis".

The prosecution said Xiao should have been aware of the danger Carr-Gomm was in because the year before her death a six-year-old boy with type 1 diabetes died at a workshop he ran in Australia after Xiao told his mother to stop giving him insulin. Xiao was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter over the boy's death.