Inquest Hears of Information Gaps and 'Missed Opportunity' in Elizabeth Struhs Case
The coronial inquest into the death of eight-year-old Elizabeth Struhs has heard that authorities missed critical opportunities to intervene before her death in January 2022. On Tuesday, a senior Queensland police officer told the Brisbane Magistrates Court that there was no protocol for sharing information with child safety services about criminal charges at the time of Elizabeth's 2019 hospitalization. The officer, whose name is suppressed, said he would have assumed child safety workers monitored the child neglect case through the media.
Elizabeth died at her Toowoomba home after her father, Jason Struhs, stopped providing her with insulin for type 1 diabetes. Her mother, Kerrie Struhs, had previously served a prison sentence for child neglect after failing to seek medical treatment for Elizabeth in 2019. The inquest, before Coroner Ainslie Kirkegaard, is examining the responses of multiple authorities leading up to Elizabeth's death.
Mother Assessed as 'No Immediate Risk' Weeks Before Death
On Monday, the inquest heard that Kerrie Struhs was assessed by a correctional services officer as posing no immediate risk to others just three weeks before Elizabeth's death. The parole intake officer who conducted the assessment on December 16, 2021, did not have access to Kerrie's full offending history, including details of her child neglect conviction. The officer marked "no" to a question about whether Kerrie posed an immediate risk.
Kerrie told the officer she trusted God would heal Elizabeth and that she would not interfere with Jason administering insulin. She was released from prison on court-ordered parole that day. Elizabeth died 22 days later.
Context: A Pattern of Missed Warnings
The inquest has revealed that Elizabeth's family was known to multiple government agencies, and that Kerrie Struhs had repeatedly expressed her religious beliefs to police, healthcare workers, teachers, parole officers, and child safety workers. The family belonged to a religious sect known as the "Saints," which held extreme Christian beliefs and rejected medical treatment for illnesses. After Elizabeth's death, family members and sect members sang and prayed for her resurrection.
Coroner Kirkegaard said on Tuesday that a "lack of curiosity" about Kerrie's "really quite extraordinary beliefs" was a "missed opportunity" to identify the broader influences on the children. She noted that none of the authorities seemed curious about why Kerrie held those beliefs. The coroner is considering adopting recommendations from Victoria's cults inquiry as part of her investigation.
Information-Sharing Failures Between Agencies
The police officer's testimony highlighted systemic gaps in information sharing. He told the court that in 2019, there was no protocol for the Queensland Police Service and the Department of Child Safety to share information about criminal charges. A memorandum of understanding to facilitate sharing of documents like domestic violence summaries and criminal histories was only established in December 2019. By then, an Intervention with Parental Agreement into the family had already finished.
The officer also said that in March 2020, police had no reason to believe the department was no longer involved with the Struhs family. This gap in communication meant that authorities may not have had a complete picture of the risks facing Elizabeth.
Perspective: Broader Implications for Child Protection
The inquest underscores ongoing challenges in child protection systems, where multiple agencies interact with vulnerable families but fail to share critical information or recognize escalating risks. The case echoes broader concerns about how religious beliefs are weighed against child safety, and whether authorities are adequately equipped to assess and respond to extreme belief systems that may endanger children.
The coroner's consideration of recommendations from Victoria's cults inquiry suggests a potential shift toward more proactive intervention in families involved in fringe religious groups. The inquest continues, with further witnesses expected to testify about the responses of child safety, police, and correctional services in the lead-up to Elizabeth's death.
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