Months before Elizabeth Struhs died, her father testified against his wife in relation to a 2019 medical episode that left the Toowoomba girl in a diabetic coma, fighting for her life.
Audio recordings from a 2021 hearing, played in the Queensland supreme court on Wednesday, reveal that Jason Struhs gave evidence against his wife, Kerrie, in exchange for a lenient sentence after both were charged with failing to provide the necessities of life before Elizabeth was hospitalised for four weeks in 2019.
In the recording, Jason appears to cry as he expressed regret for not taking Elizabeth to hospital sooner.
“I let my daughter down,” he told the court.
In his police statement, made in April 2021, Jason said he had been “furious” with his wife after discovering how seriously ill Elizabeth had become, and that she had lost significant weight. He said Kerrie “didn’t believe in taking the kids to get medical treatment and that God will take care of them”.
Elizabeth spent four weeks in hospital, including at the Queensland Children’s hospital, in 2019. In his 2021 statement, Jason said Kerrie did not visit her daughter in hospital during this time.
“I told my wife Elizabeth was in a coma and had diabetes and was being flown to the Queensland Children’s Hospital [in Brisbane] for treatment,” Jason’s statement said.
“[Kerrie] didn’t say much but she told me she didn’t believe Elizabeth had diabetes. This didn’t surprise me because she didn’t believe anything that the doctors say.”
Elizabeth died in January 2022, allegedly of diabetic ketoacidosis due to being denied insulin.
All 14 adult members of a Tooowomba religious sect, known as the “Saints”, are now on trial for her death. Jason Struhs and the group’s alleged leader, Brendan Stevens, are charged with murder by reckless indifference. The others, including Kerrie Struhs, are on trial for manslaughter.
The defendants are representing themselves at the judge-only trial, after turning down offers of legal representation.
On Wednesday, the court heard evidence from a nurse, doctor, teacher’s aide and school principal, that until late 2021, Jason Struhs assumed primary responsibility for Elizabeth’s medical care and her treatment for type 1 diabetes.
He took her to regular appointments and teachers at the girl’s school were advised they were to contact Jason, and not Kerrie, if they needed to consult a parent about her treatment.
Jason had taken Elizabeth to an appointment in November 2021, less than two months before she died. Joanne Voll, a paediatric nurse, gave evidence that Elizabeth and her father “had a lovely relationship”.
“They would banter and joke and get along quite well,” Voll said.
“Jason had a profound knowledge of the information we were providing and was able when challenged to recall that information.”
Peta Singleton, a teacher’s aide at Elizabeth’s school who assisted her with regular injections required to treat her diabetes, said the girl would come to class with her medication in “a little koala backpack”.
She said that initially Elizabeth could be “teary”, but that by 2021 the girl was “phenomenal” at administering her medication and that “Struhsy” was held up as an example to other students requiring injections.
“She was amazing,” Singleton said.
Singleton said staff were “given explicit instructions not to contact Elizabeth’s mother” but that Jason was very responsive and would always answer when called and assist.
Previously, the crown prosecutor, Caroline Marco, had told the court that Jason Struhs had been “manipulated”, first to join the church, and then to reject medicine entirely.
He was initially resistant, the court heard. Marco said his wife threatened to divorce him and others urged him to change his mind.
In his police statement, Jason gave details about the 2019 incident and how he had weighed concern for Elizabeth and the implications for his marriage.
“I thought about the situation and tried to process it,” he said. “I knew I needed to take Elizabeth to hospital. But I also thought about my marriage and what might happen to it.”
Evidence from the 2021 trial of Kerrie Struhs was played to the court on Wednesday, including from doctors who treated Elizabeth in 2021, and who had said she was “quite close to dying” at the time.
Christopher Jarvis, a doctor at the emergency department, recalls Jason carrying the girl into the hospital wrapped in a blanket.
“I have a pretty vivid recollection,” Jarvis said.
“[She was] limp and not normally-responsive.”
Jason pleaded guilty over the 2019 incident and received a suspended sentence, which took into account his testimony. Kerrie was found guilty and sentenced to five months in prison. She was released on 15 December 2021.
The court heard Elizabeth was taken off part of her insulin on 1 January 2022, with the medication withdrawn entirely two days later. The prosecution alleges she subsequently died between 6-7 January.
