Mother assessed as posing no immediate risk to others three weeks before Elizabeth Struhs’ manslaughter, inquest hears

Three weeks prior to Elizabeth Struhs' tragic death due to diabetic ketoacidosis, her mother Kerrie Struhs was assessed by correctional services as posing no immediate risk to others. This assessment was carried out by a correctional officer who lacked access to Kerrie's past offending history, including her conviction for child neglect in 2019.

Elizabeth's death occurred just 22 days after she was discharged from hospital on 6 January 2022, following her father Jason Struhs' decision to stop providing insulin for her type 1 diabetes. Kerrie was sentenced to five months in jail for the 2019 neglect incident, in which she failed to take Elizabeth to the hospital for treatment.

The coroner, Ainslie Kirkegaard, had previously heard that Elizabeth was in a life-threatening condition when admitted to the hospital and was later found in a coma. Jason Struhs was also convicted for child neglect in the same incident. Despite the seriousness of Kerrie's offense, the parole intake officer conducting the assessment on 16 December 2021 did not have access to crucial documents, such as the QP9 file and the judge's sentencing remarks, due to administrative errors.

The officer's assessment resulted in Kerrie being upgraded from "low" to "standard" risk level, requiring weekly meetings with a parole officer. Tragically, Elizabeth died on 7 January after her insulin was withdrawn by her father two days before this parole meeting.