A coroner has heard that child safety officials were warned a diabetic girl faced an extreme risk of death if she was returned to her science-denying, religious extremist mother—two years before the child’s preventable death.
Eight-year-old Elizabeth Rose Struhs died at the family home near Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, as her parents, her brother and 11 other members of the ‘Saints’ church group gathered around her to pray.
Her father, Jason Richard Struhs, had stopped giving her insulin injections several days earlier.
An inquest began on Monday to examine whether child safety, health and other government agencies responded adequately and appropriately in the period before Elizabeth died on January 7, 2022.
A paediatrician told the inquest that Elizabeth was ‘minutes from death’ when she was airlifted to Brisbane Children’s Hospital in July 2019, after her mother, Kerrie Struhs, refused to obtain medical treatment for her seriously ill six-year-old daughter.
Elizabeth was later diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
The paediatrician, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Queensland’s child protection authority had effectively stonewalled her concerns that Elizabeth faced an ‘extreme risk of harm including death’ if she was returned to a mother who rejected medical science.
‘Elizabeth was in a comatose state and very near to death,’ the paediatrician told the inquest.
Elizabeth Rose Struhs (pictured with her big sister, Jayde) died at her family’s home near Toowoomba on January 7, 2022
Child safety officials were warned against returning Elizabeth (above) to her science-denying, religious extremist mother two years before her death
The endocrinologist treating Elizabeth had told Child Safety that her mother believed the girl’s diabetes would be cured and that she would not need insulin to remain alive, the coroner heard.
‘It is a life-threatening condition … if the mother continues to deny treatment, she cannot be in Kerrie’s care,’ the endocrinologist said.
The inquest heard that Kerrie had belonged to ‘the Saints’ for years and had previously refused to seek medical or dental care for Elizabeth.
Although Child Safety had not received the endocrinologist’s written report, the paediatrician said officials knew its contents when they decided to return Elizabeth to her home.
According to the paediatrician, officials remained focused on the assumption that Elizabeth would also be cared for by her father, who had not yet joined the group at that time.
The two medical specialists considered Jason Richard Struhs ‘weak’ when faced with pressure from members of the Saints, the paediatrician testified.
The safety plan created by Child Safety depended on the then-six-year-old Elizabeth recognising when she was unwell and telling someone, the inquest was told.
‘It’s not developmentally appropriate’, the paediatrician said.
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An inquest heard on Monday that Elizabeth’s father, Jason Richard Struhs (above), had stopped giving her insulin shots
Elizabeth’s parents, brother and 11 other members of ‘the Saints’ church group gathered to pray around her as she lay ‘minutes from death’. Pictured left is Elizabeth’s mother Kerrie speaking with investigators
Jason Struhs agreed to a diabetes treatment plan but by January 2022 had been convinced by his wife and the Saints to stop Elizabeth’s insulin.
Elizabeth rapidly became unwell, was unable to speak and fell into unconsciousness.
She died on a mattress on her living room floor after her parents and 12 other Saints members gathered around her to pray and sing.
The coroner also heard of an earlier opportunity for officials to intervene, after older sister Jayde Struhs triggered the Struhs family’s first contact with child protection services in 2013.
Jayde told her school nurse her parents had become involved in an extreme religion based on the Bible, counsel assisting Simon Hamlyn-Harris said.
A Child Safety manager giving evidence on Monday agreed the then-teenager was concerned for herself and her siblings ‘about the controlling nature of the religion (and) concerns about things she was required to believe’.
Jayde was at a point where she ‘wanted to get out’, Mr Hamlyn-Harris said.
But the manager said no harm was identified.
Elizabeth’s older sister, Jayde (above), triggered the family’s first case with protective services after telling a school nurse her parents had become involved in an extreme religion
The system had since changed, and staff now relied more on professional judgement than prescriptive guidelines, the coroner heard.
Jayde fled the family home a year later but remained in contact with her younger sister.
Coroner Ainslie Kirkegaard on Monday acknowledged the loss for Jayde and her family was made worse by public scrutiny, including through the inquest.
Elizabeth’s parents are serving 14-year jail terms after they, along with Saints leader Brendan Stevens and 11 others, were found guilty of manslaughter in 2025.
The inquest is due to run for two weeks.
– READ MORE: Family and church guilty of manslaughter of Elizabeth Struhs