Hongchi Xiao, the ‘slapping therapy’ healer who went on trial over deaths

Paida lajin practitioner is critical of pharmaceutical industry and ‘western’ medicine with ‘toxic’ side-effects

• ‘Slapping therapist’ found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter

Over the decades, juries at the imposing crown court in Winchester, Hampshire, have heard all kinds of extraordinary stories.

Few can have been quite as strange as the twisty tale of Hongchi Xiao, a Chinese-born banker turned “master” of alternative medicine who, by his account, learned a long-forgotten method of self-healing, paida lajin, from kung fu masters and hermits and spread the message across the world, attracting millions of followers.