USMI- Dunedin doctor murder trial: Accused Venod Skantha killed teen Amber-Rose Rush to protect his career.
Dunedin doctor allegedly offered a 16-year-old girl up to $20,000 for sex before later stabbing her to death, a court has been told.
US Media International - USMI
A Dunedin doctor allegedly offered a 16-year-old girl up to $20,000 for sex before later stabbing her to death, a court has been told.
Venod Skantha, 32, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 16-year-old Amber-Rose Rush, who was found dead in her Corstorphine home in Dunedin on February 2 last year.
He also denies four counts of threatening to kill.
Amber-Rose was found by her mother Lisa Ann Rush dead in her bed, after sustaining six knife wounds to her neck and throat.
The victim was one of a large group of teens who the junior doctor was regularly associating with from 2017.
Crown prosecutor Richard Smith said Skantha was providing drugs and alcohol to the teens at social gatherings.
His friendship with Amber-Rose, the court heard, soured in early 2018 when he allegedly indecently assaulted her.
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The victim's mother Lisa Ann Rush, who died of a suspected suicide last year, gave a police statement after her daughter's death.
Rush was the one who discovered her daughter's body - when she went to let their elderly dog out of her bedroom around 9am the next morning.
She told police she noticed the dog had peed on the floor - then noticed a small patch of blood on bed.
