Fourteen members of a small religious sect in Australia have been found guilty of the manslaughter of an 8-year-old girl, who died after they withheld insulin needed to treat her diabetes because of their unwavering belief that God would heal her. <\/p>\n
Instead, as she lay dying, they turned to prayer and song, maintaining a vigil around her bed, and even after she\u2019d stopped breathing, sought divine intervention to raise her from the dead. <\/p>\n
Elizabeth Struhs\u2019s parents were among members of the home-based church found guilty Wednesday after a nine-week, judge-only trial at Brisbane\u2019s Supreme Court that heard evidence from 60 witnesses and examined hundreds of exhibits. <\/p>\n
Handing down the <\/strong>verdicts, Justice Martin Burns said Elizabeth\u2019s death was \u201cinevitable\u201d after the group failed to administer insulin or seek medical help as she lay dying over six days in January 2022 at her home in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane. <\/p>\n All 14 members had refused to enter a plea, which was formally accepted as not guilty, <\/strong>and the courtroom was adapted to seat all defendants so they could stand trial together. <\/p>\n In his ruling Wednesday, Burns said that, until her death, Elizabeth was a \u201cvibrant, happy child\u201d who was \u201clovingly cared for\u2026 and adored\u201d by all members of the church, including the accused. <\/p>\n \u201cHowever, due to a singular belief in the healing power of God which, to the minds of her parents and the other members of the Church left no room for recourse to any form of medical care or treatment, she was deprived of the one thing that would most definitely have kept her alive \u2013 insulin,\u201d Burns wrote. <\/p>\n Elizabeth was diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes in 2019, but died on January 7, 2022 of diabetic ketoacidosis, a complication caused by a lack of insulin and medical treatment for the condition, according to the ruling. <\/p>\n The group\u2019s spiritual leader Brendan Stevens and the girl\u2019s father Jason Struhs were originally charged with murder by reckless indifference, but both were found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter because Burns wasn\u2019t convinced beyond reasonable doubt that they \u201cknew Elizabeth would probably die.\u201d <\/p>\n During the trial, the court heard the sect was almost completely confined to three families who at the time of Elizabeth\u2019s death met three days a week. <\/p>\n They didn\u2019t ascribe to any religious denomination, but saw themselves as Christians who followed the Bible. They believed that through prayer, a person could receive the Holy Spirit, which would enable them to speak in tongues. <\/p>\n A central tenet of their faith was the healing power of God, and they rejected conventional medicine, which some members described as \u201cwitchcraft,\u201d the ruling said. <\/p>\n The court heard that Jason Struhs joined the church in August 2021, following his wife Kerrie Struhs, who\u2019d become a firm believer in its teachings. <\/p>\n Just months later, on January 2, Jason Struhs declared to a church meeting that \u201cGod had healed Elizabeth of her diabetes,\u201d according to Burns\u2019 written ruling. <\/p>\n That night, Elizabeth had one last dose of slow-acting insulin, and the next morning her glucose levels were so normal that Jason Struhs became convinced God had intervened. <\/p>\n Struhs told his daughter to put away her glucometer because \u201cshe didn\u2019t need it anymore,\u201d and the group members praised the \u201cmiraculous\u201d development, the ruling said. <\/p>\n Glucometers measure the amount of glucose in blood and indicate if a dose of insulin is needed. Elizabeth Struhs used hers for the last time on January 3. <\/p>\n Over the next four days, church members took turns monitoring Elizabeth\u2019s condition, sitting by her bedside as she steadily deteriorated. <\/p>\n They shared text message updates, with some describing her as \u201crestless.\u201d She was vomiting and \u201cfairly weak.\u201d Yet, Stevens repeatedly reassured Elizabeth\u2019s parents that \u201cGod shall prevail,\u201d according to the ruling. <\/p>\n Justice Burns wrote that any belief that God had intervened \u201cought to have been dispelled\u201d when church members watched Elizabeth decline \u201cinto severe illness.\u201d Instead, the group called for prayers, sang and talked about the goodness of God. <\/p>\n Even after the 8-year-old stopped breathing early on January 7, the group gathered around her, singing \u201cchoruses\u201d and praying for her \u201cto be raised from the dead by God.\u201d <\/p>\n One text message between defendants said: \u201cElizabeth does not appear to be breathing apparently, but we will see a victory very soon. God can do anything!\u201d <\/p>\n Jason Struhs finally called emergency services 36 hours after his daughter\u2019s death, telling others that \u201cthough God would still raise Elizabeth, they could not leave a corpse in the house,\u201d the ruling said. <\/p>\n When police arrived at the house, they set up a crime scene, ushering church followers outside. One detective told the court that when she arrived, she saw about 20 people in the front yard playing music, singing and praying. <\/p>\n Outside court on Wednesday, Elizabeth\u2019s older sister Jayde Struhs told reporters she was \u201crelieved\u201d that those responsible for her death had been found guilty. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a long and hard three years. Not a moment has gone by that I haven\u2019t thought about my little sister, Elizabeth,\u201d Struhs said. <\/p>\n All 14 found guilty will be sentenced on February 11. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fourteen members of a small religious sect in Australia have been found guilty of the manslaughter of an 8-year-old girl, who died after they withheld insulin needed to treat her diabetes because of their unwavering belief that God would heal her. Instead, as she lay dying, they turned to prayer and song, maintaining a vigil <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Decline into \u201csevere illness\u201d<\/h2>\n