An alternative healer has been jailed for 10 years in the UK over the death of a woman during a cheek therapy workshop

LONDON — An alternative healer who recommended “buccal therapy” to treat a range of conditions was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday for the death of a 71-year-old diabetic woman who stopped taking insulin during one of his workshops.

Hongchi Xiao (61) was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence for failing to provide medical attention to Danielle Carr-Gomm, who was screaming in pain and foaming at the mouth during the fourth day of a workshop in October 2016.

Xiao, of Cloudbreak, California, promoted paya lajin therapy by having patients hit themselves repeatedly to release “poisonous waste” from the body. The technique has its roots in Chinese medicine, but critics say it has no scientific basis and patients often experience bruising, bleeding or worse.

Carr-Gomm was one of two of Xiao’s patients who died.

He was extradited from Australia, where he was convicted of manslaughter after a 6-year-old boy died when his parents stopped taking insulin medication after attending one of his workshops in Sydney.

“I consider you dangerous even though you do not have the characteristics of most other dangerous criminals,” Judge Robert Bright said at Winchester Crown Court’s sentencing.

“By the late afternoon of the first day you knew that Danielle Carr-Gomm had stopped taking her insulin,” the judge said. “Furthermore, you made it clear to her that you supported it.”

Bright stated that Xiao made only a “symbolic effort” to get Carr-Gomm to take insulin when it was too late, and showed no signs of remorse as she continued to promote paya lajin in prison.

Carr-Gomm was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1999 and was desperate to find a cure that didn’t involve injecting herself with needles, said her son Matthew.

She searched for alternative treatments and a few months before her death, she attended a workshop led by Xiao in Bulgaria, during which she also became seriously ill after stopping treatment.

However, she recorded a video report in which she called Xiao “a messenger sent by God” who “started a revolution to give people the power to heal themselves and change the entire healthcare system.”

Xiao congratulated Carr-Gomm when she told other retreat participants in English that she had stopped taking insulin.

On the third day, Carr-Gomm “was vomiting, tired and weak, and in the evening she was howling in pain and unable to answer questions,” prosecutor Duncan Atkinson said.

The cook, who wanted to call an ambulance, said she decided to seek help from people with experience in holistic healing.

“Those who received and accepted the defendant’s teachings misinterpreted Ms. Carr-Gomm’s condition as a crisis in the recovery process,” Atkinson said.