‘I feel immense pain as if someone stabbed me in my heart,’ boy’s mother says in statement read out in court

This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

Devastated parents have told a judge of their grief over the manslaughter of their diabetic six-year-old son who died after attending a Chinese slapping and stretching therapy workshop in Sydney.

“I feel immense pain as if someone stabbed me in my heart,” the mother wrote in a victim impact statement read out in the district court on Thursday.

The statements of the parents – who can’t be named – were read out by a support person at the sentence hearing of a Chinese self-help practitioner, Hong Chi Xiao.

A jury in October found the 56-year-old guilty of manslaughter for breaching the duty of care he owed the boy through gross negligence.

Diabetic six-year-old died undergoing slapping therapy, Sydney court hears Read more

The boy’s last insulin injection to treat his type 1 diabetes came on the first day of a week-long “radical” Chinese slapping and stretching therapy workshop in April 2015.

His relatives said Xiao instructed them to stop the regular blood glucose tests and insulin injections. He told them the boy’s increased vomiting showed toxins were leaving his body.

In his statement, the boy’s father said time would never heal the gaping wound in his heart over the loss of their beautiful son.

“He was becoming my best friend,” he wrote.

Xiao will be sentenced on Friday.