Judge’s concerns over police interceptions in Elizabeth Struhs case

The alleged leader of ‘The Saints’ religious group charged over the death of eight-year-old Toowoomba girl Elizabeth Struhs has criticised the interception of their mail.

Brendan Luke Stevens, 60, is the alleged leader of a church accused of being involved in withholding medicine to eight-year-old Elizabeth Struhs (inset), resulting in her death.

A judge overseeing the case of fourteen people charged with the homicide of Elizabeth Struhs has raised concerns over revelations the group’s communications are being intercepted by police and passed to the Crown.

At a Supreme Court review of the matter on Wednesday, Crown Prosecutor Caroline Marco said the Director of Public Prosecutions had further information to disclose to the self-represented defendants, including interceptions of their communication in prison.

The 14 members of ‘The Saints’ religious group are charged over the death of eight-year-old Toowoomba girl Elizabeth Struhs who died in January 2022, after being deprived of her diabetes medication, allegedly so she could be “healed by god”.

All 14 accused have declined to apply for bail and are awaiting trial in custody.

Elizabeth Rose Struhs

They have not engaged lawyers and are expected to represent themselves at an upcoming trial in July.

Justice Martin Burns raised questions over the appropriateness of their communications being forwarded to the Crown in light of their self-represented status.

“It wouldn’t be speculating too much to expect they would be discussing how they are approaching their defence…,” he said.

Justice Burns said the Crown may be “perfectly entitled to do it” but urged for further investigation to ensure it was appropriate.

He said the court and other stakeholders had worked hard to ensure the accused men and women were able to communicate freely to prepare their defence, including by way of weekly meetings.

Justice Burns said it would “run counter to that whole notion” if their communications were being fed back to the Crown.

Ms Marco said she was instructed that the interceptions stopped after the indictments were presented, and that the letters had not been read by the Crown.

Members of the group scoffed, laughed and shook their heads during the exchange via video link from custody.

Alleged leader of group Brendan Stevems. Picture: Supplied

The alleged leader of the group Brendan Stevens raised concerns about the interception of mail, and complained that it sometimes took a month for the male and female groups to exchange mail from “just down the road”.

When Justice Burns pointed out that a solution to many of the issues would be to apply for bail, Stevens responded “we didn’t ask to get in prison, why would we ask to get out of it”.

He asked why all of the group had been charged with murder, only for the charges against 12 of the 14 to be downgraded to manslaughter.

“We don’t see any of this as justice,” he said.

Stevens and Elizabeth’s father Jason Struhs are each charged with murder. Her mother Kerrie Struhs and 11 other members of the group are charged with manslaughter.

The case will be reviewed again in May with a seven-week trial expected to begin in July.