'We believe in the healing power of God': How a religious sect in Australia left an eight-year-old girl to die

When the parents of eight-year-old Elizabeth Struhs stopped giving her the insulin she needed to control her diabetes, they thought God would cure her.

And when the little girl slowly died in their home in the Australian city of Toowoomba they and other members of the Saints, a religious sect stood by waiting for her to rise from the dead.

The details that emerged at the trial in Queensland of the 14 members of the cult were harrowing. The court heard that the child’s father Jason Struhs finally called emergency services 36 hours after his daughter’s death, saying “though God would still raise Elizabeth, they could not leave a corpse in the house”.

Both Jason and her mother Kerrie Struhs were found guilty of manslaughter. The sect’s leader, Brendan Stevens was found guilty of manslaughter for encouraging the father to withhold insulin from his daughter in January 2022.

The Saints are a conservative Christian sect made up mostly of three families who believe in speaking in tongues and who reject modern medicine as “witchcraft”.

The 14 will be sentenced on February 11th.

Andrew Messenger from the Guardian Australia details this tragic case.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.

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