The prosecution's key witness in the murder trial of a Dunedin doctor has been accused of calling a friend to give himself an alibi.
Amber-Rose Rush. Photo: Supplied
Venod Skantha denies killing 16-year-old Amber-Rose Rush in February last year.
The Crown claims the 18-year-old witness drove Mr Skantha to Miss Rush's home and helped clean up after she was killed.
The Crown case is the 32-year-old stabbed Miss Rush to death to stop her coming forward with claims that would have ended his career as a junior doctor at Dunedin Hospital's emergency department.
The defence says the witness played a far greater role in her death.
This morning the prosecution's key witness took the stand for the third day.
Defence lawyer, Jonathan Eaton QC, grilled the witness on his involvement in the crime.
In contention is a phone call the witness made on the night Miss Rush was killed.
The witness called a friend shortly before midnight on 2 February 2018.
The defence said the witness told his friends he was involved in a murder.
But the witness now claims he cannot recall making such statements and he was often overly dramatic.
Mr Eaton said the person on the other end of the phone call recalled being told to put the call on speakerphone.
That was so more than one person would hear the phone call, he said.
"What I'm suggesting to you is that you're not telling the truth about that at all. You made that call to [your friend] and asked him to put it on speakerphone so [another friend] could hear," Mr Eaton said.
"I don't remember," the witness said.
"The reason you did that is because you wanted other people to know that at 11.54pm you were by yourself and Venod's not with you," Mr Eaton said.
"I can't remember sorry," the witness said.
"Because you were wanting, if anyone ever asked what you were doing at that time, someone to say 'I know he was on his own because he rang me'?"
"I can't remember."
Mr Eaton then questioned the witness about whether he knew what an alibi was, he responded he had heard the term before.
"An alibi is evidence that you were somewhere else, so you couldn't have been there . . . were you making that call to give yourself an alibi?" Mr Eaton pressed.
After a long pause the witness responded: "No".
Mr Eaton then continued to press the witness on inconsistencies in the various statements he had given to police, what he told his friends during the phone call and what he told others in the days after Miss Rush's death.
The witness explained them away as an inability to recall details of the night and exaggerations.
As he ended the phone call to his friend, the witness told him he could see Mr Skantha emerging from Miss Rush's home and he had to go.
He conceded on the stand that was not true, but said he was not lying.
"You didn't tell the truth, so isn't it a lie?" Mr Eaton asked the witness.
"I guess you could say yes," the witness responded.
"So why won't you admit it was a lie?"
"I don't know sorry."
"Do you not know what a lie is," Mr Eaton snapped back.
During a police interview, the witness told the interviewing officer he was a "compulsive liar".
He backed down from that during yesterday's testimony, saying he was not aware of the connotation of being a compulsive liar.
Mr Eaton claimed he said it because the officer had caught him in a lie and he had to explain away inconsistencies in his various accounts of the night.
"I suggest to you when you made that call you must've been out of the car and very close to or even in Amber's house," Mr Eaton said.
"No," the witness responded.
"You got the key out from under the Buddha and went into her room?"
"No."
"Did you go into the kitchen?"
"No."
"Turn any lights on?"
"No."
"Did you go challenge Amber about what she's posting about Vinny?"
"No."
Then Mr Eaton offered up the defence's contention about what happened that night: "Did you get upset and do something stupid you regret?"
"No," the witness again responded.
The witness struggled to recall other key details of the night in question, such as who cleaned the murder weapon.
Earlier in the trial the witness spoke about cleaning a bloodied kitchen knife.
However, Mr Eaton raised other accounts, such as those given to the police, where the witness said Mr Skantha cleaned the knife.
As Mr Eaton pressed the witness on which statement was true, the witness conceded: "I can't fully remember".
