Sister warned of ‘sugar daddy’
Amber-Rose Rush’s sister warned her a doctor was a ‘‘sugar daddy’’ who was sexually grooming the 16-year-old.
Shantelle Rush took to the stand on day two of the trial of Dunedin doctor Venod Skantha.
The 32-year-old denies killing Amber-Rose, who was found dead by her mother at their Clermiston Ave home in Dunedin’s Corstorphine suburb on February 3, 2018. He also denies four charges of threatening to kill.
Rush, Amber-Rose’s older sister by six years, told of the last message she received from her sister: ‘‘I am so angry.’’
She did not see the message until the following morning but, by then, her sister was dead.
Rush said she had never met Skantha but raised concerns about him in a series of Facebook messages with her sister.
The messages, read under cross-examination by defence lawyer Jonathan Eaton, QC, included plans for Amber-Rose and a friend to move into Skantha’s Fairfield home, which she called ‘‘so flash’’.
‘‘Living with a rich doctor YOLO (you only live once),’’ Amber-Rose messaged her sister.
When Rush found out the doctor was 30, she expressed concern to her sister, who described Skantha ‘‘as like a dad to us’’.
Rush said she questioned why a doctor would hang out with teenagers and called him a ‘‘sugar daddy’’, urging her sister to look up the meaning of ‘‘sexual grooming’’.
‘‘No, he not into me LMFAO f... that,’’ her sister replied.
The messages also disclosed that Amber-Rose spent some money on Skantha’s credit card and ‘‘he won’t even notice’’.
She also said her mother would try to get money out of Skantha over something. ‘‘He will or I’m going to the cops,’’ Amber-Rose messaged.
Amber-Rose’s mother, Lisa Ann Rush, died in a suspected suicide in June 2018, and in a statement read to the court on Monday alleged Skantha had offered her daughter $50 for sex, then raised it to $20,000.
The Crown alleges Skantha killed the teen over fears she would go public with allegations about his interactions with minors, which would effectively end his medical career.
Skantha, a junior doctor at Southern District Health Board, had been on his final warning at Dunedin Hospital in 2017 after an earlier incident.
Amber-Rose’s boyfriend, Kristin Clark, said the pair met through the Tinder dating app in early 2018.
He had stayed at her home several times, including the Thursday before her death. He told the court she contacted him over Snapchat on the Friday, February 2, about angry messages she was exchanging with Skantha, who was often called Vinny.
She sent him screenshots of the conversation but did not want his help, he said.