Slapping therapist jailed over death 'released early'

An alternative healer jailed over the death of a woman at one of his workshops has been released from prison just 18 months into a 10-year sentence, it is understood.

Hongchi Xiao, 63, from California, was convicted and sentenced in 2024 for the manslaughter by gross negligence of 71-year-old Danielle Carr-Gomm in 2016.

Carr-Gomm, who was diabetic, died while taking part in a therapy event in Wiltshire, which involved people being slapped or slapping themselves repeatedly.

On Friday, during a Court of Appeal hearing where an application to overturn his conviction was quashed, it emerged Xiao had been returned to the US and was believed to no longer be in custody.

In his judgment, Lord Justice Dingemans said it seemed Xiao had been returned to the US on 2 July through the Early Removal Scheme.

This enables eligible foreign national offenders to be deported from the UK once they have served the minimum required proportion of their sentence.

However, he added: "Other information suggests he was deported on 30 June 2026. It seems that Mr Xiao is not in custody in the USA."

A government spokesperson said: "Hongchi Xiao's crimes were terrible, and our thoughts remain with his victims.

"This government is deporting foreign national offenders at pace, with more than 5,000 deported last year, and Hongchi Xiao is prohibited from ever returning to the UK."

They added if Xiao were to return to the UK, he will be liable to serve the rest of his sentence from the point he was deported.

It was announced on Wednesday that new Prime Minister Andy Burnham was pausing an upcoming scheme that would have seen thousands of prisoners in England and Wales eligible to be released from prison early.

As part of the Court of Appeal hearing, lawyers for Xiao argued that a waiver – which Carr-Gomm and the other participants signed to say the therapist was not liable for any injuries or illnesses arising from the activities – had been inappropriately summed up to the jury by Mr Justice Bright at trial.

They also said the judge misdirected the jury about evidence from another of the participants.

But Lord Justice Dingemans, sitting with Mr Justice Murray and Judge Andrew Lees, said on Friday the previous judge "was entitled to set out the evidence as he understood it".

In a judgment, he also said: "As it is, we do not consider that the judge's comments about the waiver rendered the trial unfair or the verdict unsafe.

"This is because the judge was simply pointing out that the waiver did not reflect the reality of the relationship between Ms Carr-Gomm and Mr Xiao."

He said Mr Justice Bright did misdirect the jury about the waiver, but only on it being potentially "decisive" if it were a civil trial instead of a criminal one.

However, Lord Justice Dingemans said that "a legally correct direction from the judge" would have "created more difficulties for Mr Xiao because it would have made plain that Mr Xiao was seeking to rely on a waiver that had no legal effect".

He added: "For the detailed reasons set out above, we dismiss the appeal against conviction."

The trial at Winchester Crown Court heard Carr-Gomm, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1999, was "howling in pain" and "frothing at the mouth" as she became seriously ill before she died on the fourth day of the workshop.

Jurors were told she had sought alternatives to her insulin medication because of her vegetarianism and fear of needles.

The court heard she had provided a testimonial for Xiao, describing him as a "messenger sent by God" who 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".

She joined the Paida Lajin workshop, which means "slap and stretch", in October 2016, having attended another in Bulgaria a few months earlier where she also stopped her insulin medication and became seriously ill before recovering.

The court heard Xiao had said "well done" to Carr-Gomm after she told the participants in Wiltshire that she had stopped taking her insulin at the week-long retreat, and she again became seriously ill.

Xiao had been extradited from Australia for the trial into Carr-Gomm's death.

He had previously been prosecuted there after a six-year-old boy also died when his parents withdrew his insulin medication after attending Xiao's workshop in Sydney.

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