An Australian court convicted 14 members of a fringe religious group of manslaughter on Wednesday over the death of an eight-year-old girl with diabetes who was deprived of life-saving insulin.
The father and mother of Elizabeth Struhs, as well as the religious leader of the Saints group, were among those found guilty for her death in January 2022, following a judge-only trial at the Queensland Supreme Court.
The small, home-based church in the Queensland city of Toowoomba held a “core belief” in the healing power of God, leaving no room for medical care or treatment, Justice Martin Burns said in a written judgement.
The young girl died of ketoacidosis — a severe complication of diabetes — after her insulin medication was halted for several days, the court heard.
“Until her death, Elizabeth Rose Struhs was a vibrant, happy child with, of course, her whole life ahead of her,” the judge said.
She was lovingly cared for “in almost every way” by her parents and adored by members of the religious group, he said.
But “she was deprived of the one thing that would most definitely have kept her alive – insulin”.
The girl’s father Jason Struhs had told police that she was “bouncin’ around, playin'” at first but over the following days was “slowly gettin’ weaker and weaker”, court documents showed.
Both the girl’s father and her mother, Kerrie Struhs, were found guilty of manslaughter for abdicating their duty of care to their daughter, showing “grave moral guilt and disregard for human life”, the judge said.
All other accused, including the church’s religious leader, Brendan Stevens, were found guilty of manslaughter for intentionally encouraging the father to withhold insulin from his daughter.
Stevens and the girl’s father were each found not guilty of murder because it could not be proven that they realised she would probably die, given their state of mind at the time, the judge said.
None of the defendants accepted legal counsel during the trial or entered pleas to the charges against them. The judge entered not guilty pleas on their behalf.
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