All 14 members of an extreme religious group in Australia, have been arrested for the death of an 8-year-old girl. The girl was diabetic, and her parents, who were members of the group, believed that God could heal her of the illness. As a result, they stopped giving her insulin injections.
As the girl lay dying, the members of the religious group gathered around her, praying and singing. In court, the judge called them out for willingly watching the child die instead of helping her.
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Eight-year-old Elizabeth Struhs was diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes in 2019, according to multiple reports, including ABC Australia. When she became sick, her mother Kerrie Struhs, who was a member of a home-based ultra Christian religious group in Brisbane, Australia, didn’t take her to the hospital. The group doesn’t believe in medical intervention. However, her father, Jason Struhs, was not a member of the group and took his very ill daughter to the hospital.
It was then that Elizabeth was diagnosed. Both Jason and Kerrie Stuhs faced jail time after their daughter’s diagnosis, but Jason didn’t serve time after turning over evidence against his wife, ABC Australia reported. He was committed to making sure Elizabeth took her life-saving doses of insulin for nearly two years.
But the stress became too much, eventually causing Jason Struhs to also turn to the religious group in 2021. CNN noted that on January 2, 2022, Struhs told members of the group that “God had healed Elizabeth of her diabetes,” according to a written ruling by Justice Martin Burns. That night, she had her last dose of slow-acting insulin.
The ruling stated that Struhs told the girl to put away her glucometer because “she didn’t need it anymore,” with members of the religious group praising the “miraculous” development.
Over the next four days, members of the group all took turns monitoring the girl, who was laying on a mattress. In text messages, they claimed Elizabeth was “restless,” and she was vomiting and “fairly weak.”
“She was described as speaking little, needing help going to the toilet, and being incontinent,” prosecutor Caroline Marco said in court, per the BBC, adding that the girl was also lethargic and had lost consciousness. Still, religious group leader Brendan Stevens, told the girl’s parents “God shall prevail.”
Elizabeth Struhs stopped breathing early on January 7, 2022. Instead of getting the girl help, members of the group sung “choruses” and prayed for her “to be raised from the dead by God,” CNN reported.
“Elizabeth does not appear to be breathing apparently, but we will see a victory very soon. God can do anything!” a text message between group members read.
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Jason Struhs called emergency services 36 hours after his daughter died. He told others “though God would still raise Elizabeth, they could not leave a corpse in the house.” When police arrived, members of the group were praying and playing music. The home immediately became a crime scene.
Originally, Brendan Stevens and Jason Struhs were charged with murder by reckless indifference. Burns, however, wasn’t convinced the men “knew Elizabeth would probably die,” and lowered the charge to manslaughter. All group members, which also included Elizabeth’s older brother, refused to enter a plea, which became not guilty by default.
Stevens called the nine week judge-only trial “a religious persecution.”
When handing down the almost 500-page verdict this week, Burns acknowledged that Elizabeth’s parents and the entire religious group clearly loved the girl. “It cannot be doubted that Elizabeth was lovingly cared for in almost every way,” he said, as reported by the BBC.
“However, 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’s older sister Jayde Struhs, who left her family due to their belief in the group at 16, was pleased by the verdict, but also shared she believes the “system had failed” her little sister.
“We are only here today because more wasn’t done sooner to protect her or remove her from an incredibly unsafe situation in her own home,” she shared in a statement read outside the court, per the BBC.
The group is expected to be sentenced next month.
