Doctor warned Elizabeth Struhs would not be safe years before sect killed her by withdrawing medicine

Coronial inquest begins into death of eight-year-old after 14 members of Toowoomba sect the Saints, including her parents, were found guilty of her manslaughter

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A medical specialist at the Queensland Children’s hospital warned that Elizabeth Struhs would not be safe at home with her mother years before her parents allowed her to die by withdrawing lifesaving medicine, a coronial inquest has heard.

Elizabeth, a type 1 diabetic, died at the age of eight from diabetic ketoacidosis on 7 January 2022, at her family home in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, after her parents and other members of a religious sect withdrew the insulin she needed to survive and sat around singing and praying while she slowly died over the course of several days.

All 14 adult members of the sect, known as the Saints, were convicted of her manslaughter last year, including her father, Jason Struhs, mother, Kerrie Struhs, and brother, Zachary Struhs, and the leader of their sect, Brendan Stevens.

The group, which some have referred to as “a cult”, did not believe in medicine, and believed Elizabeth would be miraculously healed of her incurable illness and be resurrected after she died.

Elizabeth had been hospitalised in 2019 in a similar incident. Her mother, Kerrie, openly refused to provide her medical care and was charged and convicted with failing to provide her the necessaries of life as a result of the incident in 2021.

A coronial inquest, which sat for its first day on Monday, heard that doctors had attempted to warn the child safety department that Elizabeth could not be safely returned to Kerrie.

Coroner Ainslie Kirkegaard heard from an experienced medical specialist who helped care for Elizabeth after her admission to the Queensland children’s hospital’s intensive care unit on 17 July 2019. The doctor cannot be identified for legal reasons.

The doctor wrote a professional report about the child one day later raising concerns about her safety, the inquest heard.

The doctor said she was concerned partly due to Elizabeth’s condition at presentation, describing her as “extremely unwell” and requiring intubation and a ventilator.

But she was also concerned about the religious beliefs of Elizabeth’s mother, Kerrie, she said.

Kerrie refused to even attend the hospital to see her child, and denied that she was sick or would ever require medication in a phone conversation, the doctor told the court.

Kerrie also had no questions about her daughter’s condition, the doctor said.

Counsel assisting Simon Hamlyn-Harris read from the doctor’s nine-page report, which was sent to child safety and the police.

“‘Type 1 diabetes is a life-threatening condition that requires complicated care by the parents, the report reads,” he said.

“If her mother continues to deny the requirement for insulin and the related treatments Elizabeth could not be in Kerrie’s care’.