Fourteen Queenslanders linked to a fringe religious group have been sentenced over the 2022 death of an eight-year-old girl.
Elizabeth Struhs died at her home in Toowoomba, Queensland, after her family failed to provide insulin or medical care for type 1 diabetes, believing she could be healed by God.
Her parents have both been sentenced to more than 14 years in jail.
Queensland Supreme Court Judge Martin Burns found the defendants guilty of manslaughter last month.
Struhs family
Elizabeth was the third-youngest child of Jason and Kerrie Struhs. The couple had eight children and lived in Toowoomba in south Queensland.
At the time of Elizabeth’s death, the family were part of a religious sect founded in the early 2010s, called ‘The Saints’. The group was led by a man called Brendan Stevens, and initially included his family, Kerrie, and her children. Jason did not join until 2021.
According to court documents, the Saints considered “themselves simply... Christians who followed God’s Word.”
Diabetes
In 2019, Elizabeth became extremely unwell. Jason told police that year he knew he needed to take her to the hospital, but that it would be against Kerrie’s wishes. He eventually took Elizabeth to the hospital after she fell unconscious at home.
At the hospital, Elizabeth was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, which required her to take several insulin injections a day.
Doctors told the court she was malnourished and severely dehydrated, and that they attempted to explain her diagnosis to Kerrie.
Elizabeth was hospitalised for a month, after which Jason said he managed the six-year-old’s diabetes with her.
Jason and Kerrie were both charged with “failing to provide the necessaries of life” to Elizabeth in 2020. Jason pleaded guilty, gave evidence against Kerrie, and received a six-month suspended sentence.
Kerrie pleaded not guilty and refused legal representation. In July 2021, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
While Kerrie was in prison, the Struhs’ second-oldest child Zachary (then 19) encouraged his dad to join the church. Kerrie was released on parole in December 2021.
Death
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Across 1-2 January 2022, Jason reduced Elizabeth’s insulin. At a Saints meeting on 2 January, Jason announced to the group that her diabetes was cured. He later told police “he had not planned to announce this; the words just ‘came out’”.
Elizabeth was given her last injection of insulin that night.
One of Elizabeth’s siblings, who was 13 in 2022, told police she soon became unwell. According to the child, Elizabeth was “sick, not keeping much down” and in and out of consciousness.
Texts between group members from 4 January show the sect believed Elizabeth would soon become well, and that “the flesh” would not “take hold”.
Instead, Elizabeth’s condition quickly deteriorated, and she died in the early hours of 7 January 2022, aged eight.
Authorities were not called for 36 hours because, as they told police, the group believed she would rise from the dead.
Judge Burns found the group continues to believe “Elizabeth will be raised from the dead in their lifetime.”
Manslaughter defence
Jason Struhs and Brendan Stevens were charged with murder over Elizabeth’s death. 12 others were charged with manslaughter.
The group refused legal representation or to enter a plea, saying the trial was “religious persecution”. Under Queensland law, pleas of not guilty were entered on their behalf.
Jason and Brendan’s charges were downgraded to manslaughter, with Judge Burns concluding they “knew of the probability, as opposed to the possibility, of death.”
Sentence
In court on Wednesday, Burns sentenced Jason to 14 and a half years in prison, and Stevens to 13 years.
Kerrie was sentenced to 15 years, in recognition of the fact that she was on parole when Elizabeth died.
All three must serve at least 80% of their sentences before they can apply for parole.
Fourteen members of the church group will serve jail time, with Burns saying all were “in one way or another responsible” for Elizabeth’s “slow and painful death”.
