Hongchi Xiao claimed to have learned healing techniques from kung fu masters, hermits, farmers and fishermen in remote areas of China. A former banker turned alternative medicine practitioner, he practiced “shirt type“, a pseudo-slapping therapy method that is supposed to improve blood circulation and stretch muscles – with no scientific basis.
The method, which Hongchi Xiao says can be learned in just a few minutes for self-healing, involves using hands or paddles to repeatedly slap body parts in an attempt to “allow a smooth flow of energy”.
Health care scam
As early as 2010, Hongchi Xiao launched a large-scale healthcare business, organizing workshops around the world, in partnership with various paramedical and religious organizations, and which, according to his own statements, had already made “tens of millions” followers in 2016.
The bonesetter continued to multiply promises of miraculous cures, affirming that the shirt type allowed people with cancer or paralysis to be treated, or people suffering from diabetes.
Two dead
In April 2015, a 6-year-old boy with type 1 diabetes died following one of these miracle workshops in Sydney, Australia, after his parents stopped giving him insulin on Xiao’s advice.
A year later, in October 2016, Hongchi Xiao held another workshop in Wiltshire, England, at the invitation of the Moon cult, where a 71-year-old woman, Danielle Carr-Gomm, who also had type 1 diabetes and had been following his advice since a first meeting in Bulgaria a few months earlier, died after stopping her insulin and fasting for four days.
Convicted in 2019 by an Australian judge, imprisoned and banned from practicing medicine, Hongchi Xiao was then brought back to the United Kingdom to stand trial for Carr-Gomm’s death. On Friday, July 26, 2024, he was convicted by the jury at the Crown Court of Winchester of manslaughter by gross negligence, after 19 hours and 30 minutes of deliberations.
“Hongchi Xiao knew that the consequences of Danielle Carr-Gomm’s decision to stop taking insulin could be fatal, he had seen it before. Hongchi Xiao was in charge (of this workshop), but his failure to respond to Ms Carr-Gomm’s worsening condition had tragic consequences. His failure to take reasonable steps to assist Ms Carr-Gomm contributed significantly to her death and constituted gross negligence.”said Rosemary Ainslie, head of the special crimes division within the Crown Prosecution Service.
Source: www.slate.fr
