In short:
Elizabeth Struhs, a type 1 diabetic, was found dead in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, in January 2022.
Fourteen members of a religious group, including her mother and father, are facing trial over her death.
What next?
The trial continues on Thursday.
Eight-year-old Elizabeth Rose Struhs spent her last hours on a mattress on the tiled floor of her family’s lounge room while her parents slept upstairs, a court has heard.
At the Supreme Court in Brisbane today, the prosecution alleged the unconscious child was left in the care of three members of a religious congregation of which the parents were also members.
Elizabeth Struhs, a type 1 diabetic, was found dead in the Toowoomba home, west of Brisbane, in January 2022.
It is alleged that sometime between the evening of January 6 and the morning of January 7, Elizabeth died after her insulin was withheld for days out of her family’s belief God would heal her.
Her parents and 12 others, including the alleged leader of the group, have been charged with murder and manslaughter.
The defendants, aged 21 to 67 years, are all self-represented, and today each entered no plea to the charges.
A not guilty plea was entered for each defendant.
Because the group have chosen not to have lawyers, they are sitting at specially constructed bar tables in the court room and not in the dock area normally reserved for prisoners.
Elizabeth’s sister to testify
The trial, which is expected to last several months, is being heard by a judge alone.
In her opening address, Crown Prosecutor Caroline Marco told the court 60 witnesses would testify.
She told the court Elizabeth died just three weeks after her mother was released from jail after an earlier incident in which the child had almost died.
“Mrs Struhs had just been released from serving five months in prison in respect of her conduct for failing to provide the necessaries of life,” Ms Marco said.
Elizabeth’s mother Kerrie Elizabeth Struhs, 49, is charged with her manslaughter, as is her 21-year-old brother Zachary Alan Struhs.
Her father Jason Richard Struhs, 52, is charged with murder.
So too is the alleged leader of the religious group, 62-year-old Brendan Luke Stevens.
Ten others are charged with manslaughter, including Brendan Stevens’ wife, 67-year-old Loretta Mary Stevens, along with a number of their children and other members of the group — Therese Maria Stevens, 37, Acacia Naree Stevens, 31, Alexander Frances Stevens, 26, Andrea Louise Stevens, 34, Camellia Claire Stevens, 28, Sebastian James Stevens, 23, Samantha Emily Schoenfisch, 26 and her husband Lachlan Stuart Schoenfisch, 34 and Keita Courtney Martin, 22.
Text messages between accused revealed
Ms Marco said Elizabeth was an intelligent little girl who was too young to understand the consequences of her parents’ decision to withhold her insulin and not to seek medical treatment.
She revealed text messages between members of the group of accused where they discussed the adherence of their belief that God would heal and that medicine should not be used.
Ms Marco also said the Struhs’ eldest child Jayde would appear as a Crown witness along with family members of other defendants.
‘The Messenger’
She said that family members of one accused would testify that the accused had referred to Brendan Stevens as “the Messenger” and “the Preacher”.
Ms Marco said it was alleged the group held the extreme belief that God would heal Elizabeth.
Ms Marco said the Crown would enter evidence Elizabeth had been in hospital after almost dying three years before.
On the morning of July 17, 2019, she said Jason Struhs carried Elizabeth into the Toowoomba Hospital emergency department.
Elizabeth almost died in 2019, court hears
A doctor who saw them initially thought the little girl was dead. Elizabeth was malnourished and weighed just 13 to 15 kilograms at the time. She was transferred to the Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, where she stayed for 26 days.
Ms Marco alleged Elizabeth’s mother did not visit once even as her husband and the treating doctors urged her to.
But Elizabeth’s father was steadfastly at her bedside, often with the oldest sibling Jayde.
Ms Marco said after Elizabeth was transferred back to hospital in Toowoomba, Mrs Struhs attended only one education session about the treatment for Elizabeth’s diabetes and did not participate in the discussion or ask questions.
When she was discharged from hospital, on August 14, 2019, Mr Struhs signed a healthcare plan which Ms Marco said clearly stated that insulin should never be stopped.
She said Mrs Struhs wrote to the Department of Child Safety assuring them her husband and Elizabeth would continue the treatment routine after Elizabeth came home from hospital and “Elizabeth will not in any way be tossed between mine and Jason’s beliefs”.
Later, when detectives visited the family home in Toowoomba, Mrs Struhs is alleged to have told them she believed in God’s promise of healing and that the Lord would intervene.
Father baptised
The court heard Mrs Struhs had been a member of the religious group led by Mr Stevens for 17 years, but her husband had staunchly opposed it.
This changed four months before Elizabeth’s death, when Mr Struhs was baptised while his wife was in jail.
Ms Marco said the withdrawal of Elizabeth’s insulin began on January 3, 2022, and her “health was in a state of decline”.
By the next day, she was vomiting and lethargic. She spoke little, was slurring her words and needed help to go to the toilet.
Ms Marco said Elizabeth spent most of the day on January 6 unconscious before she died.
On the morning of January 8, her father Jason Struhs made a triple-0 call to report her death.
The trial continues on Thursday when Ms Marco is expected to continue outlining the case.
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