Elizabeth Struhs’ mother, Kerrie, was assessed by correctional services as being of no immediate risk to others by an officer who had no access to her offending history, three weeks before she and others caused her eight-year-old daughter to die, a Brisbane inquest has heard. Kerrie Struhs was sentenced to five months’ jail for child neglect after failing to take Elizabeth to hospital to treat her type 1 diabetes in 2019. Coroner Ainslie Kirkegaard has previously heard that Elizabeth was so unwell when she presented at hospital that she was nearly dead, and was in a coma.
Elizabeth was discharged from hospital into the care of her father, Jason Struhs, by the department of child safety. Jason was later also convicted for child neglect over the 2019 incident. When Kerrie was released from jail on 16 December 2021 on court-ordered parole, she was assessed by two different correctional officers, the inquest heard on Monday.
Elizabeth died just 22 days later of diabetic ketoacidosis, after Jason stopped providing insulin to treat her type 1 diabetes at their home in Toowoomba, Queensland. Kerrie met with a parole intake officer the day of her release from prison in 2021. That officer told the court that she didn’t have access to the QP9 for Kerrie’s conviction – a file produced by prosecutors and the police that would have included details about her offence – or the judge’s sentencing remarks.
She also had no other knowledge of Kerrie before the meeting, but was able to access some details online, including her offence type. The court later heard that the other information was not accessible due to an administrative error. The parole intake officer conducted an “immediate risk assessment” of Kerrie at the meeting.
The court was shown the file, which include the question: “Has the offender described any issues that may pose an immediate risk to themselves, others or impact on their immediate management?” A child safety officer had previously marked Elizabeth as “safe” just days after her 2019 admission to hospital. The file containing the risk assessment also disclosed a conversation between Kerrie and the parole intake officer about her 2019 offence. She said that she would keep that trust in God that he would heal.” Kerrie had previously made similar remarks to healthcare workers, child safety officers, police and others.
Brisbane-based specialist doctors considered her beliefs so dangerous that Elizabeth could not safely live in the same home as her, but were overruled by child safety. A senior correctional services officer told the court Kerrie should have been flagged for the “serious offenders unit” due to causing “serious child harm”. That would have led to additional oversight over her case, the officer said.
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