An Australian diabetic girl’s parents, who had been denied insulin for about a week, each received a sentence of 14 years in prison for manslaughter.
At her Toowoomba, east of Brisbane, Elizabeth Struhs passed away in January 2022 from diabetic ketosis, a dangerous build-up of ketones, a type of acids, and blood glucose spikes at her home.
Her relatives belonged to a sect called The Saints, who argued against medical treatment and claimed that God may save her.
Her father Jason Struhs and mother Elizabeth Struhs, were among 14 people convicted of manslaughter last month.
The Saints ‘ head Brendan Stevens has been jailed for thirteen times by the prosecutor at the Supreme Court of Queensland, who called him a “dangerous, very deceptive individual”.
Eleven additional individuals were given six to nine-year prison sentences.
Stevens and the kid’s parents were facing murder charges, but they were found guilty of the lesser one. All had pleaded not guilty.
Justice Martin Burns claimed that despite it being obvious that Elizabeth’s families and “every member of the church including all another accused,” her steps had led to her death when handing down her nearly 500-page ruling next teeth.
” She was denied the one thing that would most certainly have kept her alive,” according to a distinct belief in the treatment power of God.
Elizabeth had had endured vomiting, severe drowsiness, and a loss of consciousness because she was denied health care, attorney Caroline Marco said during the judge-alone test, which lasted several months.
In her last days, the prosecution summoned 60 witnesses and depicted an “intelligent” baby.
The church, however, had prayed and sung for the child as he laid on a bed and her situation deteriorated.
No effort was made to contact a doctor because the prosecutor was informed until 36 days after her death, and the authorities were not notified, the judge was told.
” Elizabeth is simply sleeping, and I did see her again”, her parents Jason Struhs had previously told the jury.
Stevens, 63, had defended the party’s activities as faith-based and described the prosecution as an act of “religious harassment”. He claimed that the party had “rights to consider in the word of God totally” within its “rights to think.”
Jayde Struhs, Elizabeth’s girl, had previously claimed that she had left the Saints and had fled her family home when she was 16 after declaring she was gay, and that she had then separated from them.
She and other witnesses claimed that the congregation held tight beliefs, including that holiday holidays like Easter and Christmas should be prohibited from being celebrated in accordance with the law.
The Saints matter about 20 people from three different people among its users, not affiliated with an established church in Australia.