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The parents of an eight -year -old diabetic girl in Australia who died after they denied their insulin for almost a week have been sentenced to 14 years in jail for involuntary homicide.
In 2019, Elizabeth Struhs had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and told her family that she would need daily insulin injections.
His parents belonged to a religious sect known as Los Santos, who opposed medical care, believing that God would cure her.
He died of diabetic ketoacidosis, which causes a dangerous accumulation of ketones, a type of acid, and blood sugar peaks at home in Towoomba west of Brisbane in January 2022.
His father Jason Struhs and his mother Elizabeth Struhs were between 14 people convicted of homicide last month.
The leader of the Saints, Brendan Stevens, has been imprisoned for 13 years by the Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland, who called him a “dangerous and highly manipulative individual.”
Other eleven members received prison terms from six to nine years.
Stevens and the girl’s father had been tried for murder, but were convicted of the least charge of involuntary homicide. Everyone had declared themselves innocent.
When issuing his verdict of almost 500 pages last month, Judge Martin Burns said that although it was clear to Elizabeth’s parents and “all church members, including all the other defendants,” had worshiped her, her actions had turned out In his death.
“Due to a singular belief in the healing power of God … she was deprived of the only thing that would definitely have kept her alive.”
Elizabeth would have suffered vomiting, extreme lethargy and a loss of consciousness because medical attention was denied, said prosecutor Caroline Marco during the trial, which lasted several months and was heard by a judge sitting alone without a jury.
The prosecutors called 60 witnesses and painted an image of an “intelligent” child who suffered a lot in their last days.
The congregation, meanwhile, had prayed and sung by the girl as she sat on a mattress and her condition deteriorated.
Believing that he could be returned to life, the member of the sect did not make any effort to call a doctor, and the authorities were not notified up to 36 hours after his death, according to the court.
“Elizabeth is just sleeping, and I will see her again,” said his father Jason Struhs.
Stevens, 63, had defended the group’s actions as based on faith and described the trial as an act of “religious persecution.” He said the group was within their “rights to believe in the word of God completely.”
Type 1 diabetes is a disorder in which the pancreas does not produce enough insulin. It is characterized by levels of glucose in un controlled high blood and can be controlled injecting insulin.
Elizabeth’s sister, Jayde Struhs, had previously said she had left the saints and fled her family at age 16, after leaving gay, and was now separated from them.
She and other witnesses described that the congregation had strict views, including that conventional medical care should be rejected and that both Christmas and Easter were “pagans” or wicked festivals.
The saints are not affiliated with a church established in Australia and count around two dozen members of three families among their members.
