A SELF-proclaimed healer will face a manslaughter charge in connection with the death of a woman at Cleeve House in Seend three years ago.

Danielle Carr-Gomm, aged 71, died on October 20, 2016 after undergoing an alternative 'slap therapy' treatment.

After a two-year wait, Wiltshire Police officers have been authorised to charge a man in connection with the incident.

The Crown Prosecution Service has authorised a charge of gross negligence manslaughter against Hongchi Xiao, aged 56, whose registered address is in California.

Mrs Carr-Gomm, 71, was found dead hours after taking part in one of his 'slap therapy' workshops at Cleeve House.

Mrs Carr-Gomm, a Type 1 diabetes sufferer from East Sussex, had stopped taking insulin after undergoing previous workshops.

Former Wall Street trader turned healer Mr Xiao was among two men and a woman arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.

Speaking at the time, Mrs Carr-Gomm's son Matthew, who lives in New Zealand, said: "She'd been deceived and persuaded by this guy that it was a practice that would cure her. It's been a huge shock for the family.

“I spoke to her the week before and she had been thoroughly convinced that it [slap therapy] would have a benefit towards a disease which she'd battled with since her late 50s.

"She was very open to alternative therapies - she tried acupuncture and she changed her diet a lot of the time, but largely reasonably harmless things. On reflection it turned out that it was a very dangerous practice.

"She said after her first practice that she felt a lot better. She was persuaded by them that it would work, but she didn't research enough into the background and other stories on the internet and other fatalities linked to it.

"Maybe if she'd of Googled it she may have been a little bit more careful or cynical about the treatment."