Killer doctor dies in prison
Prison authorities say not suspicious, murder appeal dismissed the same day
The former doctor who brutally murdered a Dunedin teenager in her bed has died in prison. Venod Skantha died in custody on Wednesday — the same day his appeal against his conviction was dismissed.
Police were alerted to a sudden death at Otago Corrections Facility just before 4pm. The death is not being treated as suspicious and has been referred to the Coroner.
Prison director Lyndal Miles said staff had made “every effort” to save the man but were unsuccessful.
Emergency services attended the incident about 4pm.
All deaths in custody were referred to the Coroner.
An investigation by the independent Corrections Inspectorate would also be carried out, Miles said.
Skantha learned his bid to overturn his murder conviction had failed when the Court of Appeal took the rare step of stating it was satisfied the evidence in the case proved the doctor’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
In a 44-page decision dismissing the appeal, the court upheld Skantha’s convictions for murdering 16-year-old Amber-Rose Rush in 2018, and for threatening to kill four people to secure the silence of a witness.
Skantha was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 19 years for murdering Amber-Rose in Dunedin on February 3, 2018.
Amber-Rose said she was going to police and the defendant’s Dunedin Hospital bosses with allegations of sexual assaults and providing alcohol to minors.
The court heard at trial that Skantha’s job was already in jeopardy after he had been given a final warning for serious misconduct — the new claims would likely have ended his career.
He went to her property, entered
We are satisfied that the evidence proved his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Appeal Court
the house and stabbed her to death in her bed.
The Appeal Court threw out his appeal yesterday.
“It is not necessary that we form our own view of Mr Skantha’s guilt but we have done so; we are satisfied that the evidence proved his guilt beyond reasonable doubt,” the court said.
Other grounds for his appeal included claiming that some evidence brought to trial should have been inadmissible, and that the judge was wrong to warn the jury not to attach significance to the key witness’ demeanour when he was giving evidence, and when he gave his police interview.
The court found that while Skantha’s lawyer, Jonathan Eaton, QC, mounted a “wide-ranging and thorough” challenge to the conduct of the trial and the summing-up, it was not persuaded there were material errors.