A group of family members, including parents who refused to administer insulin to their diabetic 8-year-old daughter due to their extreme religious beliefs, leading to her death, has been sentenced to long prison terms.
According to AFP and Australia’s ABC News on Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Queensland in eastern Australia sentenced Elizabeth Rose Struhs’s father, Jason Struhs, and mother, Kerrie Struhs, to 14 years in prison each for murder.
Brendan Luke Stevens, the leader of the religious cult that influenced them, received a 13-year prison sentence. Elizabeth’s older brother, Zachary Alan Struhs, along with 11 other members of Stevens’ group, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 6 to 9 years.
The group was charged with causing Elizabeth’s death by stopping her insulin treatment at the Struhs family home in Toowoomba, Queensland, in January 2022. Investigations revealed that Elizabeth, who had type 1 diabetes, developed ketoacidosis, a fatal diabetes complication, after being deprived of insulin for several days.
As members of a religious cult called “The Saints,” led by Stevens, the group believed Elizabeth would be healed naturally through faith.
Even when Elizabeth was critically ill before her death, they did not call an ambulance but instead prayed and sang. After her death, they insisted she was merely asleep and would be resurrected.
Elizabeth’s sister, Jayde Struhs, who had cut ties with the family before the incident, stated that justice had been served after the sentencing. She condemned Stevens, saying that the coercion and manipulation he used not only on his own family but also on theirs disgustingly exploited people’s vulnerabilities.