An aged diabetic woman died after a therapeutic evangelist persuaded her to stop taking insulin, a court has heard.
Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, looked for other treatments for her Diabetes condition due to her fear of needles.
She flew from her home in East Sussex, UK to Bulgaria in July 2023 after hearing about Hongchi Xiao.
After the visit, she stopped taking her insulin, making her seriously unwell.
She also started vomiting and refused to listen to her loved ones who had to beg her to start taking insulin again before she recovered.
However, in October of that year, she went to a retreat hosted in Seend, Wiltshire, by Xiao, 61, who was described in the programme for the event as ‘Master Xiao’. There he evangelized his “Paida Lajin therapy” as a replacement for insulin, and Danielle described him as a ‘messenger sent by God’.
She stopped taking insulin again and became ill again. She died on the fourth day of the retreat after Xiao failed to call for help.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson said: ‘It is said to be a method of self-healing in which “poisonous waste” is expelled from the body through patting and slapping parts of the body.’
‘He knew that Mrs Carr-Gomm was risking death, and he knew that he had an influence over her decision.
‘In short, therefore he chose to congratulate a diabetic who stopped injecting, rather than to persuade them not to take so grievous a risk to their life.’
Mr Atkinson told the jury that Xiao had already been prosecuted for manslaughter after a six-year-old boy died in 2015.
The boy had stopped taking insulin after his parents took him to the ‘alternative therapy’.
Xiao denies manslaughter, claiming he had no influence over the students at all and no more responsibility than anyone else at the retreat.
Charles Row KC, defending Xiao, told the jury that the defendant denied caring for Danielle who he had made ‘absolutely clear’ to that he was not medically trained. He also said Xiao told her not to suddenly stop taking her insulin.
The trial continues.
