The parents and 12 members of a religious congregation accused of killing an eight-year-old girl by withholding her diabetes medication have been found guilty of manslaughter.
Elizabeth Rose Struhs died on 7 January 2022 at her family's home in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, after six days without her prescribed insulin shots for type-1 diabetes.
The girl's father, Jason Richard Struhs, 53, faced a judge-only trial for murder by reckless indifference to life in Queensland's Supreme Court over nine weeks starting in July 2024.
Struhs was found not guilty of murder but guilty of the alternative charge of manslaughter.
The 14 defendants appeared in court on Wednesday with the women wearing blue jail uniforms and the men in casual clothes.
Elizabeth's adult sister, Jayde Struhs, was in court to watch the verdicts being handed down along with police officers and detectives.
The leader of the family's religious group, Brendan Luke Stevens, 63, also faced a murder charge during the same trial before Justice Martin Burns.
Justice Burns also found Stevens not guilty of murder but guilty of the alternative charge of manslaughter.
Elizabeth's 49-year-old mother, Kerrie Elizabeth Struhs, and 22-year-old brother Zachary Alan Struhs faced trial for manslaughter along with 10 other members of "The Saints" congregation.
Stevens spoke for all defendants at the start of the trial and claimed they held a reasonable belief that God would heal Elizabeth in line with the group's rejection of modern medicine.
"This isn't really a trial about murder of a child as it is religious persecution," Stevens said.
In his written judgment, Justice Burns said the prosecution had not proven Stevens or Struhs had the "mental element" of reckless indifference to life.
"There remained a reasonable possibility that, in the cloistered atmosphere of the church which enveloped Struhs … that he never came to the full realisation Elizabeth would probably die," he said.
"(Struhs believed) instead God would not allow that to happen."
All defendants represented themselves and refused to enter pleas.
After considering his verdicts for nearly five months, Justice Burns delivered them on Wednesday in a courtroom specially modified to put all 14 defendants on trial at the same time.
All defendants were asked to stand one by one in court on Wednesday and Justice Burns told each of them they had been found guilty of manslaughter.
"The length of the judgment will need to be considered. I have again urged the prisoners to seek legal representation," Justice Burns said.
'I think the court made the right decision'
Jayde Struhs said after the verdict it had been a long and hard three years.
"Not a moment has gone by that I haven't thought about my little sister Elizabeth," she said.
"I think the court made the right decision, and I believe that those responsible were found guilty for their actions."
Elizabeth Struhs' older sister Jayde outside court on Wednesday. Source: AAP / Russell Freeman
"Elizabeth was a vibrant, happy child with, of course, her whole life ahead of her," he said.
"It cannot be doubted that she was lovingly cared for in almost every way by her parents or that she was adored by every member of the church."
Justice Burns said the defendants' singular belief in the healing power of God left no room for medical treatment.
"She was deprived of the one thing that would most definitely have kept her alive – insulin," he said.
All 14 defendants will be sentenced on 11 February.
