For 17 years, Jason Struhs was the sceptic in the family, Queensland’s supreme court heard.
He refused to pay a tithe to the leader of religious sect the “Saints” that his wife, Kerrie Struhs, was a member of, saying: “God doesn’t need the money”. He even testified against Kerrie in exchange for a lower sentence, when the couple were charged with failing to supply the necessaries of life for their young diabetic daughter, Elizabeth, after she was taken to hospital in a coma in 2019 , a court heard this week.
But the 52-year-old father of eight is now on trial for murdering Elizabeth, allegedly as a result of his “extreme” religious beliefs. The eight-year-old girl died on 6 or 7 January 2021, allegedly as a result of diabetic ketoacidosis, due to being denied insulin because her family believed God would either cure her type 1 diabetes miraculously, or bring her back from the dead. Her father and the religious group’s alleged leader, Brendan Stevens, are charged with murder by reckless indifference, with Kerrie Struhs and the 11 remaining adult members of the “Saints” charged with manslaughter.
Crown prosecutor Caroline Marco spent much of the second week of the trial drawing out evidence from witnesses and playing audio recordings of prison phone calls from Kerrie to Jason to illustrate what she called the “manipulation” of Jason into joining the Saints, a small Christian sect in Toowoomba some witnesses have likened to a “cult”.
‘Easy target’: the religious conversion
Despite his long scepticism, suddenly in 2021, while his wife was in jail, Jason’s mind shifted. He was baptised that August and began speaking in tongues, the court heard this week.
On Thursday, the court heard from Jason’s former boss Brendan O’Donnell, a Christian man who told the court he’d had many religious conversations with his employee over the years which had landed on closed ears.
O’Donnell said Jason was “obviously touched by God”, and changed drastically after his baptism. He wasn’t as angry and his relationship with his family improved, the witness said.
But O’Donnell also saw danger for the “young Christian”, meaning a person who has recently found God. He warned Jason to steer clear of Brendan Stevens, the alleged leader of his wife’s church, and offered to have him over at his house instead to put the Bible in what he saw as its proper context.
“I feared for him,” O’Donnell said.
“He was a young Christian. He was a new convert … and he was an easy target to be brainwashed into their way of believing.”
Marriage and medicine
In some ways, Jason and Kerrie Struhs had a very traditional relationship. They met in 1993 and married in 1996.
“My primary role is the breadwinner, working full-time to bring in an income,” Jason said in a police statement.
“She was the mum, she stays home with the kids.”
Years later, Kerrie met Brendan Stevens. Estranged daughter Jayde Struhs said it was on her first day of school.
For 17 years Kerrie followed Stevens, first at Revival Centres International in Brisbane and then after he broke away from the larger church to run his own, the court heard. Jason stayed with her, but didn’t follow her religion.
Stevens and Kerrie followed their own form of Christianity, which did not permit the use of medicine, aside from first aid, the court heard.
“When our child Matthew was born I had to make her go to the hospital to give birth, she would have rather given birth at home,” Jason said, in his police statement.
In 2019 their daughter Elizabeth Struhs was diagnosed with diabetes and nearly died, the court heard. Kerrie refused to visit her in hospital or assist with her treatment. So Jason took sole responsibility of her medical care.
The court heard treating diabetes is complex. It involves calculating ratios and measuring the contents of food. Elizabeth was able to do some of it – including testing her own blood sugar and injecting herself with insulin – but she needed help.
Clinicians testified that Jason took her to appointments, without fail, every three months from 2019 until November 2021.
Peta Singleton, a teacher’s aide at Elizabeth’s school, said she kept her injecting equipment “in a little koala bag”.
“We were given explicit instructions not to contact Elizabeth’s mother. [Jason] was good. He would answer the phone, would talk us through what needed to be done.”
‘There’s no turning back’
Dozens of phone calls between the couple recorded during Kerrie’s five-month stretch at the Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre, played in court, suggest Kerrie was excited when Jason converted, in August 2021.
In the phone calls, Jason mumbles and is often difficult to hear or understand. Kerrie has a constant giggle, even in response to serious conversations, including those about her religion. Their conversations often ramble and they typically start phone calls on mundane issues like asking if letters or emails have got through or how work is going. In one conversation, Jason told Kerrie how hard it was not to have the person he’s sat next to for 25 years nearby, but he also often tells her he’s not sure how he feels about things. In at least one phone call he cries. She often gives a specific count of the number of days she still has to spend in jail.
Brendan Stevens, by contrast, is high energy and speaks decisively. He quotes often from the Bible and is relentlessly positive. Even prison had an upside, he told Kerrie.
Stevens said Jason would never have converted without her incarceration: “enjoy every day in prison because it was all worthwhile,” he said.
“This was for a cause that you could never have got without it.”
All three of them now sit side-by-side in court.
The crown prosecutor alleges that when Kerrie went into jail – which she felt was a form of religious persecution – she considered divorcing Jason.
But in October 2021 Stevens assured her she was coming home to a “brand new man”.
“It’s a miracle what happened Kerrie, there’s no turning back.”
On 15 December she was released from jail.
Jason took leave from the bakery where he worked on 30 December, the court heard. On 1 January, he took Elizabeth off some of her insulin and on 3 January, all of it. By 6 or 7 January, she was dead.
Jason Richard Struhs and the group’s alleged leader, Brendan Luke Stevens, have been charged with murder by reckless indifference, with Kerrie Elizabeth Struhs, Zachary Alan Struhs, Loretta Mary Stevens, Therese Maria Stevens, Andrea Louise Stevens, Acacia Naree Stevens, Camellia Claire Stevens, Alexander Francis Stevens, Sebastian James Stevens, Keita Courtney Martin, Lachlan Stuart Schoenfisch and Samantha Emily Schoenfisch charged with manslaughter.
They have turned down offers of legal representation and refused to enter pleas on the first day of the trial. Supreme court Justice Martin Burns ordered that pleas of not guilty be entered on their behalf.
The trial continues.
