Leader of a religious group accused of killing an eight-year-old girl by withholding her medication claims trial is ‘religious persecution’

The leader of a religious group accused of murdering an eight-year-old girl by withholding her medication has said the trial was a “religious persecution” and that the group acted reasonably according to their beliefs.

Brendan Luke Stevens, 62, was the leader of a Christian group calling themselves ‘The Saints’ and is on trial for murder in Brisbane Supreme Court along with the girl’s father, Jason Richard Struhs, 52.

“This is not really a trial about the murder of a child, it is about religious persecution,” Stevens said.

The girl’s mother, Kerrie Elizabeth Struhs, 49, and the other 11 members of the congregation are charged with manslaughter.

Elizabeth Struhs died on January 7, 2022 at her family home in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, after her parents and 12 others withheld insulin medication for her diabetes for six days.

All 14 defendants are representing themselves at the trial, which is being conducted by the judge alone. Stevens told Judge Martin Burns on Friday that he wanted to make an opening statement to provide the group’s “perspective.”

“We believe in God. We see that there is hypocrisy in the country in general, and we have chosen to walk with God. It is reasonable to believe in God. The prosecutor has suggested that it is not reasonable,” Stevens said.

Stevens said the group, which refused to file, was charged under legislation passed by Parliament and under the authority of King Charles. Both legislations are based on the word of God.

“God’s name is invoked from the beginning. We have a right to believe fully in the word of God as we do … woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees,” Stevens said.

He said the basis of the murder charge, namely that he and Jason Struhs had acted with reckless indifference to life, had not been used before in Queensland and was a man-made law.

“Who do you follow, God or man? We have chosen God. We don’t really care what the verdict is,” Stevens said.

Elizabeth Struhs died on January 7, 2022 at her family home in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, after her parents and 12 others withheld her diabetes insulin medication for six days

Police footage from Toowoomba home after community members arrested

Judge Burns had previously heard that Jason Struhs was awakened at 5am on January 8, 2022, by loud prayers and rushed downstairs, thinking Elizabeth may have been healed by God, in line with the group’s religious beliefs.

Struhs instead discovered that Elizabeth had stopped breathing and died during the night. She had been experiencing increasing symptoms of diabetic ketoacidosis, which lasted for six days after he allegedly stopped giving her insulin.

Kerrie Struhs had already been released from a five-month prison sentence a few weeks earlier for failing to seek medical attention for Elizabeth’s diabetes symptoms in 2019, which nearly led to the girl’s death.

Members of the group exchanged messages after Elizabeth died in 2022, telling each other that God would raise her from the dead.

Police and paramedics were scheduled to attend the trial on Friday. They were the first on the scene when Jason Struhs called 911 after waiting 36 hours to find Elizabeth lying dead on a mattress on the floor of the family home.

The trial will last another eleven weeks.