The parents of an 8-year-old girl who died after they withheld her insulin, encouraged by members of a small Christian sect who believed God would save her, have been sentenced to at least 14 years in prison. Elizabeth Struhs died in January 2022 on a mattress on the floor of her home in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, days after her father Jason Struhs, 53, declared that she no longer needed medication for Type 1 diabetes.

Her mother, Kerrie Struhs, 49, encouraged Elizabeth’s father to withhold her insulin, as did 12 other members of a Bible-based sect known as “The Saints,” who were found guilty of manslaughter in a judge-only trial. In a sentencing hearing, Queensland Supreme Court Justice Martin Burns sentenced sect leader Brendan Stevens, 63, to 13 years in prison, describing him as “a dangerous, highly manipulative individual.”

Eleven other members of the sect, who sang and prayed while Elizabeth died, were sentenced to between six and nine years in prison. “Elizabeth suffered a slow and painful death and you are all, in one way or another, responsible,” Justice Burns wrote in his sentencing remarks.

The court heard that Jason Struhs had initially rejected the sect’s insistence that God would heal Elizabeth, but after his wife was imprisoned for failing to provide medical care for their daughter in 2019, he became “baptized” as the sect’s newest member. Elizabeth died just three weeks after her mother was released from prison on parole.

Justice Burns said Jason Struhs had put his own personal beliefs ahead of his duty as a father, “then staked the life of your eight-year-old child on it.” The sect’s leader, Brendan Stevens, told police that Elizabeth’s death was “just a little trial to prove that you all are truly faithful to our faithful God.”

The case has raised concerns about the influence of small, extreme religious groups on vulnerable individuals. Cult expert Raphael Aron said that Jason Struhs would have been under “immense” pressure to join the group and follow their beliefs. Aron also warned that prison is unlikely to change the beliefs of “The Saints,” and that further contact between members could entrench their ideology.

Justice Burns said the prospects of the offenders’ rehabilitation were “bleak, to say the least.” “Each of you engaged in some sort of spiritual gamble with the life of a child – a child you professed to love. The arrogance of your belief in that regard was and remains bewildering.”