The trial of Skantha commenced on 4 November 2019 at the Dunedin High Court on a charge of murder and four counts of threatening to kill.
[4] The sole suspect was Venod Skantha, who at the time of Amber-Rose Rush's death had worked as a house officer at the Dunedin Public Hospital, which was then managed by the Southern District Health Board.
[8][9] Prior to Amber-Rose's death, Skantha had reportedly faced dismissal from the Dunedin Public Hospital for being drunk while performing a procedure and negligent behaviour.
The Crown argued that the defendant had hired a teenage friend to drive him to Amber-Rose's house where he murdered her in order to prevent her from reporting him to the authorities.
[15][16] In August 2018, Skantha dismissed his Auckland-based defence lawyer Mark Ryan in favour of the Christchurch-based Jonathan Eaton.
[22][23] The trial of Venod Skantha commenced on 4 November 2019 before Justice Gerald Nation and a jury of ten men and two women.
[24] The Crown prosecutor Richard Smith said that Amber-Rose Rush was part of a group of teenagers that Skantha had befriended and supplied alcohol and drugs.
The Crown argued that Skantha had allegedly indecently assaulted Amber-Rose in early 2018 and claimed that he had murdered her in order to prevent her from informing the authorities, which would have ended his medical career.
Skantha's defence lawyer Jonathan Eaton QC disputed the Crown's evidence, claiming that his client did not know the layout of the Rush home.
[25][26] During the first week, the forensic pathologist Dr Kate White, who conducted the autopsy on Amber-Rose, testified that the victim had died from an 11 cm-long incised wound to the left side of her neck, which penetrated her carotid artery and windpipe, causing her to bleed to death.
White also testified that the victim had sustained stab wounds to the back of her neck and two "superficial" horizontal cuts to her throat.
[4] On 6 November, the Crown said that Skantha had burnt his bloodstained clothes in a large terracotta pot at his girlfriend Brigid Clinton's home in Balclutha.
Clinton also testified that Skantha had been agitated and anxious following Amber-Rose's death, wounding himself with a samurai sword shortly before they were questioned by Police on 4 February 2018.
He testified that the pair had driven to Blackhead Quarry to dispose of Amber-Rose's phone before heading to Skantha's Fairfield home where the alleged clean-up began.
The teenager claimed that he had deliberately done a sloppy cleaning job in order to leave a trail of evidence for the police, including a blood stain on Skantha's grey suede shoes.
[31] During cross-examination, defence lawyer Eaton QC accused the teenage witness of killing Amber-Rose, citing his estranged relationship with the victim and his knowledge of her house layout.
[32][33] During the second week of the trial, Crown witness ESR (Institute of Environmental Science and Research) scientist Timothy Power testified that blood found on the defendant's suede shoes and car window were 800,000 million times more likely to have originated from Amber-Rose than anyone else.
Defence lawyer Eaton QC accused the Crown's teenage witness of planting the evidence on the shoe in order to frame the doctor.
[34][35][36] On 18 November, Detective Constable Amy Stewart, who had posed as a friend of the Rush family, testified that Skantha did not appear upset when meeting with the Amber-Rose's mother Lisa-Ann following her daughter's death to offer his condolences.
Crown prosecutor Bates argued that Skantha had murdered the defendant to prevent Amber-Rose from exposing his indiscretions to the authorities, which would have caused him to lose his career and lifestyle.
[42][43][44] On 26 November, Skantha was unanimously found guilty by the jury of murder and four counts of threatening to kill the Crown's witness and their family.
[46][47] Rush's family were upset that Skantha wore earplugs during the victim impact statement by her deceased mother and subsequent sentencing.
[60] Similarly, an Otago Daily Times editorial published on 23 November argued that the Rush and Millane murder cases highlighted the fact that women were statistically more likely to be victims of violent crimes than men.