The parents of a diabetic girl who died just shy of her ninth birthday and a dozen members of their religious sect were found guilty of manslaughter by an Australian court on Wednesday for withholding lifesaving medication.
The girl’s father, Jason Struhs, and the sect’s leader, Brendan Stevens, had also faced charges of murder. But after a lengthy trial, a judge ruled that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that the men knew that discontinuing the insulin the girl needed would probably lead to her death.
Elizabeth Rose Struhs died at her family’s home on Jan. 7, 2022, four days after her father stopped administering the insulin needed for her Type 1 diabetes. As she grew weaker and fell unconscious, members of the sect gathered around her and sang and prayed rather than seeking medical help, according to the court decision.
Mr. Stevens, who led a small church based out of his home in Toowoomba, in the northeastern state of Queensland, claimed during the trial that the criminal case was religious persecution. Members of the church, who sometimes referred to themselves as “the Saints,” held a fervent belief in the healing power of God and that medical care would go against their faith.
All 14 defendants in the case — some of whom said they considered medicine to be witchcraft — refused legal representation and chose to defend themselves.
Mr. Struhs, a baker and father of seven other children, said during the trial that he continued to believe his daughter could be resurrected by God.
“To all of you, it looks like God has failed. But I know Elizabeth is only sleeping and I will see her again,” he said at the trial’s conclusion. “Because God has promised, and she is healed.”
Mr. Struhs and his wife, Kerrie Struhs, had previously been charged with neglecting Elizabeth’s medical needs after she was hospitalized and nearly died in 2019. Ms. Struhs was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and Mr. Struhs received a suspended sentence after providing evidence against his wife, according to court records.
But in 2021, Mr. Struhs, who had previously been wary of the church and had been the one to take his daughter to a hospital and administer the medication she needed, became a member of the church.
Other members of the church, including the couple’s then 19-year-old son, Zachary, encouraged and persuaded Mr. Struhs to take Elizabeth off the insulin, according to the decision.
Even after the girl had stopped breathing and was growing cold, church members continued to pray and sing hymns for nearly 36 hours before Mr. Struhs finally called the authorities. In his first conversation with the police, the father told the officer: “Can’t believe in God and trust in man as well. So you’ve got to make a choice.”
In finding Mr. Struhs not guilty of murder, Justice Martin Burns, the judge on the case, wrote that in the “cloistered atmosphere of the church,” the father could have been “so consumed by a particular belief promoted without pause by all its members, that he never came to the full realization Elizabeth would probably die, believing instead God would not allow that to happen.”
Elizabeth was a bright girl who loved pranks, according to her oldest sister, Jayde Struhs, who left the family years before her sister’s death after clashing with them over her sexual orientation.
