Australian couple sentenced to 14 years for daughter’s death due to withheld insulin

Sydney: An Australian couple has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for the death of their eight-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Struhus, who died after being denied insulin for a week.

Elizabeth, diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2019, required daily insulin injections. However, her parents, Jason and Elizabeth Struhus, members of a religious group called The Saints, refused medical treatment, believing in divine healing.

She died in January 2022 at their home in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, from diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition caused by dangerously high blood sugar levels.

A Queensland Supreme Court judge also sentenced the group’s leader, Brendan Stevens, to 13 years in prison, calling him a “dangerous, highly vicious person.” Eleven other members received prison terms of six to nine years.

While all pleaded not guilty, the court ruled that despite their love for Elizabeth, their actions led to her death. Justice Martin Burns stated that relying solely on divine intervention deprived the child of life-saving treatment.