The parents of an eight-year-old diabetic girl in Australia who died after they denied her insulin for almost a week have each been sentenced to 14 years in jail for manslaughter.
Elizabeth Struhs had in 2019 been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and her family was told she would need daily insulin injections.
Her parents belonged to a religious sect known as The Saints, who opposed medical care, believing God would heal her.
She died from diabetic ketoacidosis, which causes a dangerous build-up of ketones – a type of acid – and blood sugar spikes at her home in Toowoomba west of Brisbane in January 2022.
Her father Jason Struhs and mother Elizabeth Struhs, were among 14 people convicted of manslaughter last month.
The Saints’ leader Brendan Stevens has been jailed for 13 years by the judge at the Supreme Court of Queensland, who called him a “dangerous, highly manipulative individual”.
Eleven other members were handed jail terms of six to nine years.
Stevens and the girl’s father had been on trial for murder but they were convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter. All had pleaded not guilty.
When handing down his almost 500-page verdict last month, Justice Martin Burns said that although it was clear Elizabeth’s parents and “every member of the church including all other accused” had adored her, their actions had resulted in her death.
“Due to a singular belief in the healing power of God… she was deprived of the one thing that would most definitely have kept her alive.”
Elizabeth would have endured vomiting, extreme lethargy, and a loss of consciousness because she was denied medical care, prosecutor Caroline Marco said during the trial, which lasted several months and was heard by a judge sitting alone without a jury.
Prosecutors called 60 witnesses and painted a picture of an “intelligent” child who suffered greatly in her final days.
The congregation, meanwhile, had prayed and sung for the girl as she laid on a mattress and her condition deteriorated.
Believing she could be brought back to life, the sect member made no effort to call a doctor, and authorities were not notified until 36 hours after her death, the court heard.
“Elizabeth is only sleeping, and I will see her again,” her father Jason Struhs had earlier told the court.
Stevens, 63, had defended the group’s actions as faith-based and described the trial as an act of “religious persecution”. He said that the group was within its “rights to believe in the word of God completely”.
Type 1 diabetes is a disorder in which the pancreas fails to produce enough insulin. It is characterised by uncontrolled high blood glucose levels and it can be controlled by injecting insulin.
Elizabeth’s sister Jayde Struhs had earlier said she had left the Saints and fled her family home at 16, after coming out as gay, and was now estranged from them.
She and other witnesses described the congregation as having strict views, including that mainstream healthcare should be shunned and that both Christmas and Easter were “pagan” or ungodly festivals.
The Saints are not affiliated with an established church in Australia and count around two dozen members from three families among its members.
