Elizabeth Struhs death: father jailed for 14.5 years as sect faces sentencing for eight-year-old’s manslaughter
The father of eight-year-old Elizabeth Struhs has been sentenced to 14-and-a-half years in prison, with a minimum of 80% to be spent behind bars, for the death of his eight-year-old type 1 diabetic daughter by denying her life-saving insulin.
Jason Struhs was the first of 14 members of Toowoomba-based religious sect the Saints to learn his fate at a sentencing hearing in the Queensland supreme court on Wednesday, after they were found guilty of manslaughter over Elizabeth’s January 2022 death by diabetic ketoacidosis.
The sect’s leader, Brendan Stevens, was sentenced to 13 years jail, and must serve 80% of that time before applying for bail.
“You are a dangerous highly manipulative individual and the authorities would be wise to consider that on your release from custody,” Justice Martin Burns said,
Jason Struhs and Stevens, were convicted of manslaughter alongside the 12 other sect members after being found not guilty of murder by reckless indifference in last year’s judge-only trial.
Addressing Jason Struhs, Burns said: “You put your own personal beliefs ahead of your duty and then staked the life of your eight-year-old child on it.”
The 14 sect members showed no emotion and did not say anything while Burns was delivering his remarks.
“You allowed your faith to blind you to her real plight,” Justice Martin Burns said to them.
“Elizabeth suffered a slow and painful death and you are all in one way or another responsible.”
The faith group, which was likened to a cult in court, does not believe in medicine – which some members have described as “witchcraft”. Instead of administering insulin, they prayed and sang for Elizabeth’s miraculous healing as she lay dying over a four-day period at a house in Rangeville, Toowoomba.
Mother Kerrie and father Jason Struhs had previously been convicted of failing to provide the necessities of life for Elizabeth after an in incident 2019.
In that year, Elizabeth, who had yet to be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, became seriously ill over a period of about six days. When she was eventually taken to hospital by father Jason she was described in court as on the verge of death, and fell into a coma.
Kerrie was sentenced to serve 18 months in prison, but served only five. Jason was given a six-month suspended sentence, reduced partly because he testified against his wife.
Jason then spent years helping treat Elizabeth’s incurable illness before being convinced to convert to the Saints faith, and then to end the use of insulin to treat his daughter’s diabetes, in 2021.
The 14 defendants were not represented by counsel during the trial or sentencing.
They refused to defend themselves against their charges, which they described as “religious persecution”.
They also refused to enter pleas. Justice Martin Burns ordered that pleas of not guilty be entered on their behalf, pursuant to Queensland law.
The 14 guilty sect members are: Jason Struhs, 53, Brendan Stevens, 63, Kerrie Struhs, 49, Zachary Struhs, 22, Loretta Mary Stevens, 67, Andrea Louise Stevens, 34, Acacia Naree Stevens, 31, Camellia Claire Stevens, 28, Therese Maria Stevens, 37, Keita Courtney Martin, 22, Lachlan Stuart Schoenfisch, 34, Samantha Emily Crouch, 26, Sebastian James Stevens, 23, and Alexander Francis Stevens, 26.
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