Testimony at a coroner's inquest has revealed that warnings about a religious group's potential threat had been lodged nearly ten years before a child died after the group withheld her diabetes treatment. A report by authorities in 2013, prompted by an older sister's notification of concern, found nothing to substantiate any allegation of harm.
On Monday, Jayde Struhs took her place at the opening of a coroner's inquest examining whether child safety, health, and other government agencies responded adequately and appropriately in the period leading up to her sister Elizabeth's death. At the time her sister died, Jayde Struhs had no awareness of what was unfolding within the family, having left the family home for Brisbane roughly eight years before, when she was sixteen.
Counsel assisting Simon Hamlyn-Harris told the hearing on Monday that Jayde Struhs had disclosed to her school nurse that her parents had taken up a Bible-based religion. According to Mr Hamlyn-Harris, Jayde Struhs had reached a point where leaving had become her intention.
A report to the coroner indicated that her actions brought the Struhs family to the attention of child protection services for the first time, back in 2013. Counsel directed questions to the first witness — a child safety department manager whose identity is protected by court order — about how Jayde's family first came to the attention of authorities, including whether Jayde had raised concerns with officials about feeling controlled by her religion and about beliefs she and her siblings were expected to hold.
The manager concluded that no harm had been identified and that the account provided by the girl at the time did not meet the threshold for what would be considered a materially adverse outcome, nor did it trigger the requirement for a child-safety notification. The agreement that took shape at the negotiating table originated on the manager's side.
Evidence presented to the coroner indicated that Kerrie Struhs, Elizabeth's mother, had been affiliated with the religious group known as "the Saints" over a number of years, during which time she did not seek medical or dental care for her daughters, holding instead to a belief that divine intervention would bring about their healing.
In 2019, a medical emergency unfolded for the then-six-year-old Elizabeth when type-1 diabetes, at that point undiagnosed, went untreated after her mother chose not to seek medical care for her. Insulin injections for the girl's type-1 diabetes had gone unadministered for several days before her death, a decision attributed to her father, Jason Richard Struhs.
Gathered around eight-year-old Elizabeth Rose Struhs at the family's rural property west of Brisbane on 7 January 2022 were her parents, a brother, and 11 other members of a religious group called "the Saints," conducting a prayer gathering as the child died. By January 2022, the father had transported his unconscious daughter to hospital, yet had since been persuaded to withdraw Elizabeth's insulin treatment.
Her speech left her first, then awareness followed, as her condition deteriorated with notable speed. Surrounded by her parents and a dozen other Saints members who had gathered to pray and sing, Elizabeth drew her final breath on a mattress laid out on the living room floor. Members of the Saints put forward assertions that Elizabeth would recover from her illness or be brought back from death.
Testimony before the coroner indicated that procedures governing staff conduct had been overhauled, with practitioners now drawing on their own professional judgement rather than following a fixed set of prescriptive rules.
A manslaughter conviction handed down by Brisbane Supreme Court resulted in 14-year custodial sentences for Elizabeth's mother and father in 2025. Brendan Stevens, identified in court as the leader of the Saints, received a 13-year prison term after Justice Martin Burns concluded he posed a considerable threat to public safety.
Coroner Ainslie Kirkegaard noted on Monday that public scrutiny — including the inquest process itself — had compounded the grief already borne by the family of Jayde Struhs, while stating that the proceedings nonetheless offered a means of examining what steps might have offered Elizabeth greater protection. Proceedings at the inquest are scheduled to extend across a fortnight.
