The leader of a religious group accused of killing an eight-year-old girl by withholding her medication has claimed the trial was “religious persecution” and they acted reasonably under their faith.
Brendan Luke Stevens, 62, was the leader of a Christian group that called itself ‘The Saints’ and is on trial for murder along with the girl’s father, Jason Richard Struhs, 52, in the Brisbane Supreme Court.
“This isn’t really a trial about murder of a child as it is religious persecution,” Stevens said.
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The girl’s mother, Kerrie Elizabeth Struhs, 49, and the other 11 members of the congregation are charged with manslaughter.
Elizabeth Struhs died at the family home in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, on January 7, 2022 after her parents and 12 others allegedly withheld her diabetes insulin medication for six days.
All 14 defendants are representing themselves at the judge-only trial and Stevens told Justice Martin Burns on Friday that he wanted to make a defence opening statement to give the group’s “perspective”.
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“We believe in God. We see that there is a hypocrisy in the land generally, and we have chosen to walk with God. It is reasonable to believe in God. The prosecution has suggested it is not reasonable,” Stevens said.
Stevens said the group, who have refused to enter pleas, had been charged under legislation enacted by parliament and under the authority of King Charles, both of which were established from the word of God.
“God’s name is invoked from the beginning. We are within our rights to believe in the word of God completely as we do … woe onto them that decree unrighteous decrees,” Stevens said.
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He said the basis of the murder charges, that he and Jason Struhs had acted with reckless indifference to life, had not previously been used in Queensland and was a man-made law.
“Who should you follow, God or man? We have chosen God. We do not particularly care amongst ourselves what the judgment is,” Stevens said.
Justice Burns previously heard Jason Struhs was woken about 5am on January 8, 2022 by loud prayers and rushed downstairs thinking Elizabeth might have been healed by God in line with the group’s religious beliefs.
Struhs found instead that Elizabeth had stopped breathing and died during the night after suffering escalating symptoms of diabetic ketoacidosis over the course of six days after he allegedly stopped giving her insulin.
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Kerrie Struhs had weeks before been released from a five-month prison sentence for failing to seek medical help for Elizabeth’s diabetes symptoms in 2019, which almost resulted in the girl’s death.
Members of the group had exchanged messages after Elizabeth died in 2022 and told each other that God would raise her from the dead.
The trial on Friday was due to hear from police and ambulance officers who were the first on scene when Jason Struhs called triple zero after waiting 36 hours while Elizabeth lay dead on a mattress on the floor of the family home.
The trial is due to run for another 11 weeks.
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