Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, of Lewes in England, died at a "slap therapy" workshop in which patients are slapped or slap themselves repeatedly. Xiao Hongchi pleaded not guilty to manslaughter, reports Andrew Gardner with The Brighton Argus.
Mrs Carr-Gomm, from Lewes, East Sussex, was previously said by her family to have embraced alternative and holistic medicine and therapies to help her diabetes.
Xiao's lawyer Jessica Clarke told the court: "The deceased was an avid follower and ran her own courses of the practice."
The BBC published an article about slap therapy and Xiao Hongchi not long before Carr-Gomm's death in 2016. The Argus reports that Xiao, 60, is in custody in the U.K. after being extradited from Australia. Other sources report that Xiao was running the session but none seem to offer more specifics on what exactly took place. Wiltshire Police announced his arrest in November.
A man has today (30/11) been charged with manslaughter by gross negligence following the death of a woman in Seend.
Hongchi Xiao, 60, of Cloudbreak, California, returned to the United Kingdom from Australia on an extradition warrant and has been taken to Gablecross custody where he was charged.
This relates to the death of Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, at Cleeve House in Seend in October 2016.
He is due to appear at Salisbury Magistrates Court tomorrow (1/12).
The practice sounds unpleasant, not least the ominous belief that bruising represents the release of "toxins."
Carr-Gromm documented her decision to attend the $951 course on a blog, in which she mentioned that the week-long October workshop was the second by Xiao that she would attend that year, the Telegraph reported shortly after her death. The first session, which took place in Bulgaria, resulted in "large areas of my body were bruised blue which indicated that a lot of 'sha' or poisoned blood and toxins had been released," the septuagenarian wrote in one post, the outlet said.
