The Crown's key witness in the murder trial of a Dunedin doctor has been accused of making up a litany of lies to cover his own involvement in Amber-Rose Rush's death.
Amber-Rose Rush. Photo: Supplied
Venod Skantha denies killing 16-year-old Amber-Rose Rush in February last year.
The prosecution's key witness took the stand for a third day today and faced a grilling from the defence, including revelations he had a history of lying to the police.
The Crown says the 18-year-old witness drove Mr Skantha to the scene of the crime and helped clean up after the murder.
But Mr Skantha's defence lawyer suggested it is the teenager who is responsible for killing Miss Rush.
The witness, who has name suppression, was grilled by defence lawyer Jonathan Eaton QC for hours yesterday and today.
He backed down on many of the claims he initially made to police, to friends and to others in the day's after Miss Rush's death, as well as statements he made earlier in the trial.
Mr Eaton today put it to the teenager that he had no problem lying, even to the police.
"Just before Christmas in 2017 you'd been in the same police station being interviewed by a police detective hadn't you? You were being interviewed in relation to serious sexual allegations that had been made by a 15-year-old former girlfriend of yours against you and a 38-year-old male friend of yours.
"You denied that you had been engaged in sexual acts at the same time with that girl. And you repeated those same lies throughout the interview didn't you?
"And just as you lied to the police then what I'm suggesting is that you have lied to the police about what happened to Amber."
Shortly before midnight on 2 February last year - about the time Miss Rush died - the witness made a phone call to a friend and said he was involved in a murder.
Mr Eaton said he was establishing an alibi while he was near to or even inside Miss Rush's home.
The witness said he did not recall making such remarks, but was often "overly dramatic".
Following cross-examination from the defence the witness also backed down from his claim he washed a bloodied kitchen knife, which he told the court only yesterday.
The witness now claimed he "can't fully remember" whether he did.
Mr Eaton also raised a meeting that took place between the witness, Mr Skantha, the accused's former girlfriend, Miss Rush's mother and an unknown woman.
It was revealed the unknown woman was an undercover police officer.
The witness had told police officers that during the meeting Miss Rush's mother brought up an incident between Mr Skantha and Miss Rush. He told police and Mr Skantha said it was not the time to talk about it.
Mr Eaton said no one else at the meeting remembered such an exchange.
When the witness said he swore he remembered it happening, Mr Eaton fired back.
"You have sworn actually," Mr Eaton quipped.
"You've sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Might what you said to the police about what was discussed there be another one of your lies or exaggerations?"
Following Miss Rush's death, in an interview with police the witness said he was a "compulsive liar".
In court today he walked back that claim and said he was not fully aware of the connotation of being a compulsive liar.
But Mr Eaton said that was exactly what the witness was and it was during the meeting with Miss Rush's mother Lisa that the witness realised his story was unravelling.
"You heard Lisa say at that meeting that this was not suicide," Mr Eaton said.
"And I suggest when you heard that you panicked. And thought 'they're going to come looking at me for this' and that's why after that meeting and after you're dropped off home you start calling your family and you call the police."
The witness responded with one word to the accusations: "No".
Prosecutor Robin Bates said such a reading of the facts was unlikely, and did not account for any of the evidence tying Mr Skantha to the crime.
"Mr Eaton has suggested to this witness that he is very, very clever," Mr Bates said.
"I've characterised it as you being a genius.
"Very, very clever in that you have decided to kill Amber. You've managed to find a knife somewhere. You've managed to find a change of clothes. You've managed to hide or remove all of the evidence that might implicate you. And you've managed to do various things which have implicated Mr Skantha."
The witness said he struggled to recall many details almost two years on from the events, but he remembered one moment very clearly.
"This is one thing I will never forget - that will linger with me for the rest of my life," he said.
"He grabbed a knife, a butter knife, and he demonstrated what he did to her on me."
The trial is yet to hear the evidence of about 50 witnesses including Mr Skantha's former colleagues at the Southern DHB and friends of Miss Rush.
