Members of a church group accused of killing an eight-year-old girl were singing on the front lawn of a house where police were photographing her body, a judge has heard.
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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.
Brendan Luke Stevens, the 62-year-old leader of the Christian group calling itself 'The Saints', is on trial for murder along with the girl's father, Jason Richard Struhs, 52, in the Brisbane Supreme Court.
The girl's mother, Kerrie Elizabeth Struhs, 49, and the other 11 members of the congregation are charged with manslaughter.
Former Queensland Police crime scenes officer Rachel Doljanin testified on Friday that she was tasked with taking photos at the Struhs family's home in the Toowoomba suburb of Rangeville.
"I observed a group of people gathered in the front yard ... some of those people were singing and I could hear a guitar playing," Ms Doljanin said.
Ms Doljanin explained to Justice Martin Burns what was depicted in dozens of her photos, including of Elizabeth's body as she lay on her back on a mattress on the floor with hands placed together on her chest.
Other photos showed handwritten posters in the home stating "she is only sleeping" and "God will heal Elizabeth no matter what".
Ms Doljanin said police found a pink case containing Elizabeth's insulin vials and blood-testing kit, and a diabetes management plan signed by Jason Struhs.
Crown prosecutor Caroline Marco said Jason Struhs stopped giving Elizabeth insulin for her type-1 diabetes on January 3, 2022 under pressure from the other defendants, who believed God would either heal the girl or raise her from the dead.
Forensic pathologist Nadine Forde testified that her post-mortem of Elizabeth showed she had lost six kilograms since November 2021.
Dr Forde said her test results showed Elizabeth did not have enough insulin to convert the "extremely high" glucose in her blood to energy, causing her system to enter diabetic ketoacidosis and break down fat instead.
"I determined the cause of death to be diabetic ketoacidosis," Dr Forde said.
She said Elizabeth's resulting organ impairment and brain damage were consistent with her not taking insulin injections for six days.
Lachlan Stuart Schoenfisch, 34, was the first and only defendant to cross-examine any witness so far in the trial and Dr Forde confirmed to him that Elizabeth's parents did not cause her to have diabetes.
Earlier on Friday, Stevens gave an opening statement on behalf of all 14 defendants and claimed the trial was "religious persecution" as they had acted reasonably under their faith.
"This isn't really a trial about murder of a child as it is religious persecution," Stevens said.
All defendants refused to enter pleas at the start of the judge-only trial on Wednesday.
"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.
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 7, 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 six days after he allegedly stopped giving her insulin.
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.
The trial is due to run for another 11 weeks.
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Australian Associated Press
