Elizabeth Rose Struhs: Faith not criminal says members of church group ‘The Saints’ accused of girl's death

Members of a church group accused of killing an eight-year-old girl have denied to a judge they acted in a criminal conspiracy to deny her diabetes medication.

Elizabeth Rose Struhs died on January 7, 2022 at her family’s home in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, after six days without her prescribed insulin shots for type-1 diabetes.

Elizabeth’s parents and 12 other defendants faced Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday and began giving their closing addresses following seven weeks of prosecution evidence in a judge-only trial before Justice Martin Burns.

Lachlan Stuart Schoenfish, 34, is charged with manslaughter and told Justice Burns during his closing address, “we believe in God above medicine”.

Elizabeth’s father, Jason Richard Struhs, 52, and Brendan Luke Stevens, the 62-year-old leader of her family’s church group known as ‘The Saints’, are charged with Elizabeth’s murder.

Schoenfish said he never encouraged Struhs to withdraw Elizabeth’s insulin as he had come to that decision himself after being baptised in The Saints in August 2021.

“Despite what the prosecution allege by some persuasion or manipulation of us towards Jason to do or not do anything, Jason was given power by God to believe in God,” Schoenfish said.

Elizabeth’s mother, Kerrie Elizabeth Struhs, 49, along with 10 other members of the congregation also faced trial charged with manslaughter.

All 14 defendants have refused to enter pleas and represented themselves at trial.

Schoenfish said he denied the prosecution’s claim that he viewed all medication as unnecessary as he only viewed it as unnecessary for himself.

He said the group “certainly have different beliefs about death”.

“We believe she will be raised from the dead,” Schoenfish said.

His wife Samantha Emily Schoenfish, 26, told Justice Burns there had been a “misrepresentation of our beliefs by the prosecution”.

“I did attend the Struhs’ house to support them ... merely as friends and family,” she said.

Mrs Schoenfish said Elizabeth’s low glucose reading when she was initially taken off insulin was a sign to her “that God did heal Elizabeth and showed us a miracle”.

“I believed she was getting better. I said ‘wow, that’s amazing. She’ll be sitting up the next morning’,” she said.

“I was shocked when that was not what happened. I trust in God. We still believe that the Lord will rise her again.”

Keita Courtney Martin, 23, told Justice Burns there was no evidence of members of the group communicating plainly to Jason Struhs that he should stop Elizabeth’s insulin.

Martin said prosecutors alleged she knew withdrawing insulin from a diabetic would result in their death.

“My knowledge of God negated such an acceptance in my mind,” Martin said.

Sebastian James Stevens, 28, said he had only acted to support the decision for Elizabeth to stop taking insulin because she “hated” injections.

“There has been an attempt to portray all of us as killers or conspirators in a heinous crime. This is a genre of fiction,” Stevens said.

The defendants told Justice Burns they intended to complete giving their closing addresses on Friday.