Man jailed over diabetic woman’s death in UK after ‘slapping therapy’

Hongchi Xiao, 61, was sentenced to prison by the Winchester Crown Court on Dec. 6 for manslaughter due to gross negligence, Sky News reported.

Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, came to a week-long retreat run by Xiao in Wiltshire in October 2016. Danielle was diagnosed with diabetes type 1 back in 1998, and had been seeking alternative methods to manage her condition without insulin.

The retreat involved an alternative therapy called "paida lajin", where people would be slapped repeatedly in an effort to cure diseases.

Xiao, a resident in the U.S.’s California but originally from China, knew that Danielle was risking death by not taking insulin medication, saying "well done" after learning she had stopped taking insulin, and failed to seek medical help for her after she fell seriously ill and died on the fourth day of the week-long course, prosecutors said, The Guardian reported.

Previously, Xiao was extradited to Australia to be tried for the manslaughter of a 6-year-old boy, who died in April 2015, as his parents stopped providing him insulin after participating one of Xiao’s events in Sydney.