An alternative healer who promoted a “slapping therapy” taken up by millions of people across the world has been jailed for the gross negligence manslaughter of a British woman who died at one of his workshops in Wiltshire.
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, who is addressed as “master” by his followers, 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, crying in pain and weakening, 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.
During his trial at Winchester crown court, Xiao described how he had learned paida lajin from kung fu masters and hermits in the mountains of China and had spread the forgotten method to millions of people around the world.
Xiao, who was born in China, said he had quit a lucrative career in finance to focus on paida lajin and was not in it to make money. He said the technique, which involves slapping and stretching, was easy to learn, helped tackle every disease known to humans, and reduced the need for patients to take “western” medicine with “poisonous” side-effects.
After Carr-Gomm’s death, Xiao was arrested. He was then taken to Australia, convicted of manslaughter for the 2015 death of the six-year-old boy and jailed. The judge in Australia concluded Xiao had told the boy’s mother to stop injecting him. He was subsequently brought back to the UK to face trial over Carr-Gomm’s death.
Describing Xiao as the “inventor of paida lajin”, the judge, Mr Justice Bright, said he was not convinced that he acted only out of altruism but believed he “actively” enjoyed being the founder of a global movement.
Bright said Xiao still believed in paida lajin and continued to practise and promote it. He said Xiao also continued to believe western medicine was toxic and ideally avoided.
The judge said he was “certain” Xiao would continue to practise in prison and on his release, and may actively or tacitly encourage followers to reduce their medications.
Bright said Xiao’s “undiminished belief” made him certain that “history may repeat itself”, leading to the conclusion that he was dangerous.
Charles Row KC, defending, said Xiao still believed in paida lajin but he recognised weaknesses in how he had practised it.
Row referred to a letter Xiao wrote to the court after his conviction. The barrister said: “It’s a letter of real humility. He acknowledges his mistakes, he explains how, during the trial process, he was forced to confront those mistakes.
“He acknowledges he was preoccupied by this idea of a healing crisis, ignored the dangerous symptoms of disease and put too much emphasis on the side-effects of [conventional] medication.”
Xiao concluded in the letter: “My contemplation is deeper than before and the false idea covered by my ego was thus discovered.”
Row said if he was released he would not conduct workshops in the same way and his writings would be overseen by a medical practitioner.
He added that Xiao, the father of two daughters, had spent seven years and seven months in prison so far.
Row said Xiao was seen by friends and colleagues as good-hearted, a follower of Confucius, with a thoughtful approach to life. He had no desire to be a celebrity or a saviour but genuinely wanted to help people. He was not motivated by money, and profits from his books and workshops were ploughed back into his work.
There had been “thousands” of testimonials from people who had said paida lajin had helped them but Row said Xiao’s ego, his belief in the healing crisis “got in the way of what he was seeing in front of him”. However, Row accepted that Carr-Gomm would have suffered for 30 hours before she died.
Describing Xiao as a “complete fraud”, Carr-Gomm’s family said: “While we cannot bring our mother back, we hope this case at least highlights the dangers of pursuing unregulated alternative therapies without proper research.”
The 15 year-sentence comprises 10 years’ detention and an extended licence period of five years. Time will be taken off for periods when he was awaiting extradition from Australia and on remand before his trial.
