‘Darkness comes before dawn,’ slapping therapist told dying diabetic

Danielle Carr-Gomm, who died at a Wiltshire alternative medicine workshop where the diabetic was allegedly encouraged to stop taking insulin - CARR-GOMM FAMILY/SWNS

An alternative healer who is accused of killing a diabetic grandmother at his “slap therapy” retreat after encouraging her to stop taking insulin said “darkness comes before the dawn” as she lay dying, a court heard.

Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, viewed Hongchi Xiao, the holistic therapist, as a “messenger sent by God”, jurors were told.

On Tuesday, prosecutors said Carr-Gomm believed the practitioner – who jurors have been told had an “unshakable” belief that Western medicine was evil – was “starting a revolution” to “change the whole system of health care”. Mr Xiao was referred to as “Master Xiao” at the Wiltshire workshop where Carr-Gomm died and prosecutors described his participants as his “keen disciples”.

Prosecutors allege that Mr Xiao, 61, knew he wielded influence over Carr-Gomm when he praised her for stopping taking her insulin.

They say that Mr Xiao should have known the consequences of a type 1 diabetic not taking their insulin because Carr-Gomm became extremely unwell at a previous workshop and because a six-year-old boy died during another of his retreats.

A court artist's depiction of Hongchi Xiao appearing at Winchester Crown Court where he is charged with manslaughter - ELIZABETH COOK/PA

Mr Xiao is standing trial at Winchester Crown Court, Hants, accused of manslaughter following Carr-Gomm’s death at his four-day paida lajin course at Cleeve House in Melksham, Wilts, in October 2016.

Paida lajin means slap and stretch in Chinese, and practitioners such as Mr Xiao, who has no medical qualifications, believe the practice of slapping people in various positions can cure diseases and ailments.

Duncan Atkinson KC, prosecuting, said Carr-Gomm previously attended a workshop of Mr Xiao’s in Bulgaria and left him testimonials, despite becoming extremely unwell after stopping taking insulin and having to be given it.

In one left on his website, she said: “You are definitely messenger sent by God.”

She said Mr Xiao was “starting a revolution … to put the power back in the hands of the people to cure themselves and to change the whole system of health care”.

Carr-Gomm sought out alternative therapy as she was a vegetarian with a fear of needles.

Cleeve House in Wiltshire where Danielle Carr-Gomm died while attending a four-day paida lajin course hosted by Hongchi Xiao - SWNS

Mr Atkinson said participants at the Wiltshire workshop interpreted Carr-Gomm’s worsening condition as a “healing crisis”.

Mr Xiao told the 30-person workshop that there were three stages to the healing process in paida lajin, and that illness like Carr-Gomm’s was “darkness before dawn breaks”.

Participants fasted and only drank Chinese tea. At classes, Mr Xiao slapped them using his hand and a paddle.

Over the course of the retreat, Carr-Gomm was heard crying and howling in pain, then found “alone in bed, pale, sweaty, drooling at the mouth and unable to talk”.

On the second day of the workshop, she was heard “crying and yelling” while lying on her bed.

A day later she was vomiting and by the evening she was “howling in pain and was unable to respond to questions”.

‘Could have been saved’

Mr Atkinson said: “[Mr Xiao] had, but did not take, repeated opportunities to call for medical assistance.

“Both his experience with [the six-year-old boy] and with Mrs Carr-Gomm in Bulgaria would have made abundantly clear to him that her life was increasingly in danger.

“The medical evidence is that Mrs Carr-Gomm’s life could have been saved if medical aid was called.”

By the time medical assistance was sought the next day it was too late. Carr-Gomm had died of diabetic ketoacidosis as a “direct result of the decision to stop taking insulin”, Mr Atkinson said.

Mr Xiao, from Cloudbreak, California, denies manslaughter.

The court has heard that he believes medicines are “evil” and that doctors “brainwash” people into prescribing them medication.

The trial continues.

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