Alternative healer behind fatal slapping workshop had no medical training – court

An alternative healer who presided over a slapping therapy workshop during which a woman died, has admitted in court he had no medical training.

Hongchi Xiao, 61, of Cloudbreak in California, gave evidence at Winchester Crown Court on Thursday afternoon, where he is on trial for manslaughter.

Type 1 diabetic Danielle Carr-Gomm died at a workshop he ran in Seend, Wiltshire, eight years ago after failing to take her insulin.

The 71-year-old died from a complication typical of diabetics who do not take insulin.

Mr Xiao denies the charge of manslaughter.

He promoted a treatment known as ‘paida lajin’ – in which people slap themselves and each other to expel poisons from the body.

Giving evidence in his own defence on Thursday, Mr Xiao said he had learned the healing technique by travelling in the mountains of Tibet, gaining knowledge from “fishermen, hermits, Taoists and kung-fu masters”.

He said it was about teaching people to heal themselves, telling the court he had no medical expertise.

Asked by his defence barrister Charles Rowe KC if he had ever suggested he was a doctor, he said: “Never”.

Mr Xiao also told the court about his objections to western medicine, blaming medication for a variety of health problems suffered by his own family as he grew up in China.

He also denied that he would ever tell anyone not to take insulin.

He said it was his belief that insulin could be “useful”, and believed people should take it if it improved their “health, wellbeing and control”.

However, the prosecution claims he had “congratulated” Mrs Carr-Gomm on not taking insulin.