Fourteen members of a Christian religious sect in the northeastern Australian state of Queensland were found guilty on Wednesday of having caused the death of an 8-year-old diabetic girl by denying her life-saving insulin.
The girl, Elizabeth Struhs, died in January 2022 in the city of Toowoomba after the treatment was withdrawn on religious grounds, leading to ketoacidosis — a severe complication of diabetes.
The sect held a “core belief” in God’s healing power to the exclusion of medical care, according to the judge at Queensland’s Supreme Court.
The administration of insulin to diabetics is often life-saving, as they do not produce enough themselves to keep the level of sugar in the blood under control, frequently leading to severe health problems.
‘Only sleeping’
Both the father and mother of the girl, Jason and Kerrie Struhs, were found guilty of manslaughter for neglecting their duty of care to their daughter.
By denying her insulin, they showed “grave moral guilt and disregard for human life,” the judge said.
The home-based church’s religious leader, Brendan Stevens, and the other sect members were also found guilty of manslaughter for intentionally encouraging the father to withhold the insulin.
No murder verdict was handed down to Stevens and the girl’s father because it could not be proven that they realized she would probably die, given their state of mind at the time, the judge said.
The sect members were said to have prayed and sung next to the girl as she died over the course of a week, and then waited 36 hours before calling paramedics after her death.
The accused repeatedly told the court and police that they believed she would be raised from the dead and was “only sleeping.”
Sentencing will take place on February 11.
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