In October 2016, Danielle Carr-Gomm, a 71-year-old diabetic woman, died at Cleeve House in Seend, Wiltshire, after attending a workshop promoting Paida Lajin therapy. The therapy involves patients being slapped or slapping themselves repeatedly. Hongchi Xiao, a practitioner of this therapy, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court for the manslaughter by gross negligence of Mrs. Carr-Gomm.
During the trial, it was heard that Xiao believes Western medicines are ‘evil’ and doctors ‘brainwash’ people into taking them. Mrs. Carr-Gomm, who was a vegetarian with a fear of needles, became interested in trying alternative therapy. At the workshop, Xiao told the participants that there were three stages to the healing process in Paida lajin, and that illness is the ‘darkness before dawn breaks.’
However, the court heard that Mrs. Carr-Gomm’s condition became so bad after ditching insulin that she was seen to be ‘vomiting, tired and weak.’ Xiao ‘congratulated’ Mrs. Carr-Gomm on stopping taking insulin on Monday October 17. Prosecutors allege Xiao knew he wielded ‘influence’ over Mrs. Carr-Gomm when he praised her for stopping taking her insulin. They say that Xiao knew of the consequences of a type 1 diabetic not taking their insulin because Mrs. Carr-Gomm became extremely unwell at a previous workshop and because a six-year-old boy died during another of his retreats.
The participants at the workshop signed a disclaimer form stating that the practice was not meant for medical treatment. Over the course of the retreat, they fasted for several days, only consuming a Chinese tea, and Xiao slapped them with his hand and a paddle. One of Mrs. Carr-Gomm’s room-mates moved out of their shared room because of her condition.
On the Wednesday, Mrs. Carr-Gomm had not attended the workshop because of illness and was ‘crying on her bed and howling in pain.’ She had also been moved from her bed to a mattress on the floor after falling out of bed. Other participants interpreted her condition as a ‘healing crisis,’ a term used by Xiao as the process of the Paida Lajin taking effect. However, the prosecutor said that this interpretation was indicative of their reliance on Xiao’s leadership in dealing with Mrs. Carr-Gomm’s condition.
The prosecutor added that Xiao had written a book on Paida Lajin in which he stated that ‘doctors are brainwashed by drug producers to act as salespersons for their drugs.’ In the book, Xiao claims that the practice of slapping people in various positions can cure diseases and ailments, and that it should be ‘safer and more reliable than existing healing practices … with no risk of poisoning or side effects.’ The trial continues.
