Source: Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) published on this website Monday 9 December 2024 by Jill Powell

A man convicted of gross negligence manslaughter following the death of a 71-year-old diabetic woman at a ‘slapping therapy’ workshop has been jailed. 

Hongchi Xiao, 61, from California, USA, had promoted the practice as a ‘cure’ for diabetes at the workshop in Seend, Wiltshire in 2016.

Danielle Carr-Gomm, who had Type 1 diabetes, died on 20 October, 2016 from diabetic ketoacidosis after she stopped taking her insulin at the event.

Xiao led the workshop and assured Mrs Carr-Gomm that her condition could be healed by a method of self-healing known as Paida Lajin, which is said to expel ‘poisonous waste’ from the body through slapping and stretching.

Mrs Carr-Gomm was congratulated by Xiao when she announced on the first day of the workshop that she had stopped taking her insulin.

But she became very unwell after she stopped her injections and Xiao neither told her to start taking her insulin or sought any medical assistance despite assuming a position of leadership over her care.

Her death was as a direct result of not taking her insulin injections at the slapping therapy workshop.

On 6 December at Winchester Crown Court, Xiao was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, with a five-year extended licence period. 

Rosemary Ainslie, Head of the CPS Special Crime Division, said: 

“Hongchi Xiao knew the consequences of Danielle Carr-Gomm’s decision to stop taking insulin could be fatal - he had seen it before. The prosecution successfully applied for bad character evidence to be made admissible, so that members of the jury could hear about Xiao’s previous conviction in Australia which arose from strikingly similar circumstances and followed the death of a child also deprived of insulin.

“Xiao openly criticised the use of insulin and congratulated Mrs Carr-Gomm on her decision to stop using it at the workshop she was attending in Wiltshire. Once she became extremely unwell, as a result of not taking her medication, he took no action to seek medical assistance or persuade her to take her insulin.

“Hongchi Xiao was the man in charge, yet he failed to respond to Mrs Carr-Gomm’s worsening condition with tragic consequences . His failure to take reasonable steps to help Mrs Carr-Gomm substantially contributed to her death and amounted to gross negligence.

“The CPS will always seek to deliver justice and our thoughts remain with the family of Mrs Carr-Gomm at this time.”

Building the case; Gross negligence manslaughter

The offence of gross negligence manslaughter is committed where the death is a result of a grossly negligent act or omission on the part of the defendant.

In order to prove the offence, the prosecution must therefore establish the following elements:

• The defendant owed a duty of care to the deceased;
  •    The defendant was in breach of the duty which he owed to the deceased;
  •    The breach of duty was a cause of the death; and
  •    The causative breach of duty amounts to gross negligence manslaughter and is therefore a crime.

In this case, prosecutors looked at three key areas:

1.    Knowledge – Xiao knew that Mrs Carr-Gomm was a Type 1 diabetic and that she was relying on Paida Lajin having claimed to have reduced her insulin intake by 50 per cent.
2.    Previous experience – Xiao’s previous experience with Mrs Carr-Gomm at a workshop in Bulgaria demonstrated that she would become seriously ill very quickly without insulin and that beginning her injections again would reverse that decline. Xiao also knew that Mrs Carr-Gomm would listen to his advice to start taking insulin again.
3.    Death of Aidan – Xiao knew of the fatal consequences of the failure to take insulin in the case of another boy who died the year before. That incident is clear evidence of knowledge of an obvious risk of death from a failure to take insulin.

Mrs Carr-Gomm first met Xiao at a Paida Lajin workshop in Bulgaria in July 2016 as she sought an alternative to insulin injections which she disliked.

At that workshop, Mrs Carr-Gomm also stopped her insulin injections but was persuaded to start taking her medication again after she became extremely unwell.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Xiao was well aware of the impact on Mrs Carr-Gomm of not taking her insulin due to the workshop in Bulgaria, and that he had a strong influence over her regarding decisions over her medication.

Jurors also heard how Xiao had led a similar workshop in Hurstville, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, in April 2015.

At that seminar, he described Paida Lajin as 100 per cent effective against Type 1 Diabetes, and that its healing effects meant it was no longer necessary to take insulin as it would be generated naturally.

Among those attending were the parents of a six-year-old boy called Aidan. At the workshop, Aidan’s parents stopped giving him insulin and he became extremely unwell, with symptoms of diabetic ketoacidosis.

Xiao told the parents that it was part of the ‘self-healing body adjustment’, but Aidan died as a direct consequence of not receiving his insulin.

Following Aidan’s death, Xiao was prosecuted for manslaughter in Australia and was convicted. The judge at that trial found that Xiao had given instructions to Aiden’s mother to stop injecting him with insulin, and that he had repeated this instruction a number of times during the workshop.

The CPS’s Extradition Unit was instrumental in Xiao being convicted both in England and Australia.

Initially, they represented Australia in the English extradition court process, which resulted in Xiao’s return to Australia, for prosecution. 

He was then successfully extradited back to England in 2023 following further work between the CPS’s Extradition Unit and its Australian counterparts, so that he could be successfully prosecuted for the manslaughter of Mrs Carr-Gomm by the CPS Special Crime Division..

Source: Mencap published on this website Thursday 7 November 2024 by Jill Powell

Jon Sparkes, OBE, Chief Executive of learning disability charity Mencap, said: 
“This Bill can’t come soon enough for the 2,000 people with a learning disability and/or autism who are stuck in mental health hospitals right now, as well as those at risk of admission. 
“Reforming the Act is key to ending inappropriate detention and placing new duties on commissioners to ensure the right community support is developed. 
“We welcome the inclusion of reforms to stop people with a learning disability and autistic people being detained when they don’t have a mental health condition. The NHS’s own reviews have shown that over 40% of people trapped in mental health hospitals do not need to be there, yet they face an average of nearly five years locked away. 
“The Bill must put in place strong duties to develop the right community support, including social care and suitable housing, which alongside the Bill’s other reforms could bring this scandal to an end. 
“We will scrutinise the Bill to make sure it delivers the change we want and need to see for people with a learning disability.” 

Mencap exists to ensure the UK is the best place in the world for people with a learning disability to live happy and healthy lives. Mencap support people directly and campaign with people with a learning disability, their families and carers. Mencap work to change laws, increase representation and campaign for better health, social care and employment opportunities for the 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK.

Source: Child Safeguarding Review Panel published on this site Wednesday 27 November 2024

The national review analysed 136 serious child safeguarding incidents, and 41 related serious case reviews (SCRs) and local child safeguarding practice reviews (LCSPRs).

It explores the specific challenges which feature in the identification, assessment, and response to child sexual abuse within the family environment.

It sets out recommendations and findings for national government and local safeguarding partners to protect children at risk.

The National Review Report “I wanted them all to notice”

The terms of reference for the review are available.

Source: Ofsted published on this website Tuesday 17 September 2024 by Jill Powell

From this term state-funded schools will not receive an overall effectiveness grade during graded inspections, following the decision by the Department for Education. This change has been reflected in the handbooks.

The handbooks have also been updated to reflect the previously announced changes to ungraded inspections, designed to reduce the burden on school leaders and allow more time and flexibility for inspectors to get to know the school, including its context and priorities.

Read the school inspection and school monitoring handbooks.

Further changes include an update to how we notify schools of inspections. Notifications for graded and ungraded inspections will now be carried out only on the Monday mornings of the week Ofsted will inspect the school.

Other updates include a change to allow schools which have issues with safeguarding, but there are no other concerns, to remedy the issues before the report is published.

See the updates to the early years and further education and skills inspection handbooks.