An alternative healer accused of killing a diabetic grandmother at his ‘slap therapy’ workshop was previously convicted over the death of a six-year-old boy in a similar case in Australia.
Hongchi Xiao, 61, denies the manslaughter of Danielle Carr-Gomm, who died during an event promoting Paida Lajin – or ‘slap and stretch’ – therapy in Wiltshire in October 2016.
She had spent years seeking alternatives to her insulin medication for Type 1 diabetes because of her vegetarianism and fear of needles, Winchester Crown Court heard.
Jurors have now been told Xiao was previously found guilty of the manslaughter of a young boy in Australia who died when his parents stopped giving him his insulin after one of his workshops.
The child fell seriously ill and started ‘vomiting black liquid’, which Xiao attributed to ‘part of self-healing body adjustment’, and he died in April 2015 – 18 months before Ms Carr-Gomm.
Duncan Atkinson KC, prosecuting, told the jury the family attended Xiao’s Paida Lajin workshops in Hurstville, Sydney, which involved the participants slapping themselves and each other, and fasting.
He said: ‘The defendant himself did not perform any slapping on any of the participants.
‘Shortly after the start of the workshop, as the judge who dealt with him in Australia found, the defendant told (the boy)’s mother to stop (his) insulin injections.
‘Such an instruction is clear evidence of how strongly held the defendant’s views were, for example, as to insulin being poison.’
Mr Atkinson said that by day three the boy’s mother told the workshop group of her son’s deteriorating health and that he was ‘vomiting, had high blood sugar levels and high ketone levels’.
Despite this, Xiao continued to ‘instruct’ the mother to continue not giving the insulin to her son, the court heard, and his health continued to deteriorate.
By the fifth day he was required to be pushed in a pram because he could not walk or stand to dress himself and started to ‘vomit yellow and black liquid’, the court heard.
The court was told the mother confronted Xiao and told him: ‘Look at this picture, last night he vomiting black stuff, all these things’, to which he replied, ‘Is the detox. All the bad stuff come from – come out from his body, his organ. It’s just part of self-healing body adjustment’.
Four days later, the boy was accompanied by his grandmother in his room when he began vomiting black liquid and had a seizure.
As the grandmother went for help, she locked herself out of the room and hotel staff arrived who found the boy on the bed motionless, the court heard.
Mr Atkinson said that Xiao also returned and began ‘slapping the boy’s inner elbows’ until paramedics arrived, but they were unable to resuscitate him and he died as a result of diabetic ketoacidosis.
Mr Atkinson told the jury: ‘The defendant was ultimately prosecuted for and convicted of (the boy)’s manslaughter.
‘It follows that there can be no question but that the defendant owed (the boy) a duty of care whilst he was an attendee at his workshop, and that he breached that duty.
‘He deprecated and deterred the use of conventional medicine even when he knew that to do so risked very serious consequences which could in turn be life-threatening.
‘He advocated a course that he knew was not medically justified and was contrary to medical experience, and a boy died as a result.
‘His actions towards Danielle Carr-Gomm occurred when the very real, obvious and serious risk of death had become all the more real and all the more obvious.
‘They involved similar conduct, congratulating a Type 1 diabetic who replaced insulin with Paida Lajin, and taking no action to secure her help despite the cruel lesson that ought to have been provided by the boy’s untimely death.’
Xiao, of Cloudbreak, California, denies the charge.
Jurors have heard Mrs Carr-Gomm hailed Xiao as a ‘messenger sent from God’.
Mr Atkinson told them earlier that the 30 people attending Cleeve House were ‘ken disciples’ of Xiao’s therapy, which saw them fasting for several days.
When Mrs Carr-Gomm stopped taking her medication ‘he simply congratulated her… he allowed a Type 1 diabetic to commence fasting without insulin’, the prosecutor said.
The trial continues.
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