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Members of a Toowoomba religious sect have been found guilty of killing eight-year-old Elizabeth Struhs by denying her insulin in 2022.
Justice Martin Burns found Elizabeth’s father, Jason Struhs, and religious leader Brendan Stevens, along with her mother, Kerrie, brother Zachary, and 10 other adult members of the group, guilty of manslaughter.
Struhs died at her family home in Rangeville, Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, on 6 or 7 January 2022, allegedly of diabetic ketoacidosis.
Jason Struhs and Brendan Stevens were found not guilty of murder.
Fourteen members of the group, known as the Saints, knew she was a type 1 diabetic, who required insulin to live, the court heard, but it was deliberately withdrawn as a result of their religious faith.
One of its tenets of the sect, the court heard, was that “God heals” and that medicine should not be used to treat illness.
They repeatedly told the court and police that they believe she would be raised from the dead and is “only sleeping”.
The Saints were alleged to have prayed and sang for her as she slowly died at her home in Rangeville, Toowoomba, over the course of a week.
They continued to do so even after her death, and waited 36 hours before calling paramedics, as her still body lay in the house, the court heard.
They refused to participate in many elements of their trial, by refusing counsel and not entering pleas. They also argued the prosecution was a form of religious persecution.
Pleas of not guilty were entered on their behalf.
Justice Burns handed down his verdict in the Queensland supreme court in Brisbane on Wednesday.
Most of the family had followed Stevens for 17 years, first at Revival Centres International in Brisbane, which the court heard taught similar beliefs about faith and medicine, and then paying him a tithe and attending small home-based services.
But Jason always resisted, until what the prosecution described as “manipulation” by other members of the Saints.
The court heard pressure increased when Kerrie was jailed for not providing the necessities of life when Elizabeth became seriously ill in 2019.
Over the objections of his wife, Jason took their daughter to hospital in Toowoomba after she fell into a coma. She was later taken to Brisbane and made a full recovery. He then helped her treat the incurable ailment for two-and-a-half years.
While she was behind bars, Kerrie continued to communicate by the prison phone system and email, and other members counselled him.
He became a member in August 2021, was baptised and started talking in tongues.
But Jason continued to help Elizabeth treat her diabetes, in spite of urging from other members of the Saints, the court heard.
Kerrie was released from jail on 15 December and promised her parole officer treatment would continue.
“All we’ll do is continue to pray, for the certain healing that God has promised …,” Elizabeth’s mother, Kerrie Struhs, wrote, in a message read to the court.
“She’ll continue to receive what you believe she needs [insulin].”
On 1 January, Jason took Elizabeth off some of her insulin and, on 3 January, all of it.
He later told police, in interviews, that he would do it again.
“To all of you, it looks like God has failed, but I know Elizabeth is only sleeping, and I will see her again, because God has promised and she is healed. Amen,” he told the court, at the end of his closing statement in his own defence.
Other defendants echoed him: “Amen.”
The court sat for two months of testimony from dozens of witnesses before the mammoth case adjourned in September for Judge Burns to consider his verdict.
Those found guilty of manslaughter were: Brendan Stevens, Jason Struhs, Zachary Alan Struhs, Kerrie Struhs, Loretta Mary Stevens, Therese Maria Stevens, Andrea Louise Stevens, Acacia Naree Stevens, Camellia Claire Stevens, Alexander Francis Stevens, Sebastian James Stevens, Keita Courtney Martin, Lachlan Stuart Schoenfisch and Samantha Emily Schoenfisch.
