A Dunedin doctor who stabbed a teenage girl to death in an "efficient and clinical way" has been jailed for at least 19 years.
Venod Skantha (32) appeared in the High Court at Dunedin this afternoon where Justice Gerald Nation imposed the mandatory life imprisonment alongside the non-parole term.
The former Dunedin Hospital doctor – who was on a final warning for serious misconduct at the time - was found guilty of the murder of 16-year-old Amber-Rose Rush following a jury trial in November last year, as well as four counts of threatening to kill.
Justice Nation said the killing was clearly carried out to silence the victim and any investigation into Skantha's conduct would have likely ended his medical career.
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His subsequent actions, he said, were "irrational and illogical".
"What made [the murder] callous to a high level was, in part, the efficient and clinical way in which Amber-Rose was killed but also the non-fatal stab wounds, together with the way you left her in her bed, inevitably in a pool of her own blood to be discovered by her mother.
"It's hard to imagine a worse scene for a mother to be confronted with. The memory of what she saw . . . was not in fact something she could live with."
The victim was found in the bedroom of her Corstorphine home the next day, on February 3, 2018, by her mother Lisa-Ann, who died of a suspected suicide four months later.
"I've lost my child. She was more than a child, she was my best friend," she wrote.
"I have lost the person who brought our family together . . . I am completely broken, completely empty."
Lisa-Ann outlined the devastating effects of the trauma on her life.
"I don't ever leave the house unless necessary. I barely eat or sleep," she said.
And among her words there was also a sad harbinger of what was to come.
"I don't feel like I can be the way I was. I constantly wish I wasn't here and I was with Amber," Lisa-Ann said.
"I am constantly living with the nightmares of finding Amber . . . It's not a normal life, it's an existence."
He said the sentence was lighter than they had hoped, "but it is what it is".
"Myself and my children will just go on and be strong together," Mr Rush said.
Detective Senior Sergeant Rob Hanna said he was pleased the family had finally got some answers.
"They've had to endure an unthinkable two years and as the judge said, it's not going to stop now," he said.
"I just take my hat off to how strong they've been."
Defence counsel Jonathan Eaton QC earlier said his client passed on his sympathy to the Rush family but "steadfastly maintained his innocence".
The defendant's family wanted to attend sentencing, he said, but he forbid them.
Justice Nation said Skantha's life went "off the rails" in 2017 when he started drinking heavily and socialising with people much younger than him.
The trial heard details of an online conversation between Skantha and Amber-Rose from just minutes before her death.
She confronted him the accusations of "touching up" girls and supplying alcohol to minors.
"Imma make sure EVERYONE knows what a sick **** you are, including your work AND the police," the victim messaged.
To show she was serious, Amber-Rose posted screenshots of the conversation on Instagram.
Soon after, Skantha picked up a teenage boy – a mutual friend, who has permanent name suppression – and had him drive to the girl’s Clermiston Ave house.
The defendant was dressed in dark clothes, gloves and a beanie, the jury heard.
Skantha stabbed her six times after "smothering her with a pillow", the judge said.
After several minutes, Skantha emerged from the home with some of Amber-Rose’s belongings and a bloodied knife.
The pair dumped the victim’s phone at Blackhead and then travelled to the doctor’s Fairfield home where he admitted killing the teen.
The driver – the Crown’s key witness – said Skantha later physically demonstrated how he stabbed Amber-Rose.
The judge said that demonstrated an "irrational arrogance".
During a two-night stay in Balclutha, the defendant burned the clothes he had worn to commit the murder and instructed the teenager to clean his shoes.
The boy told the court he deliberately neglected the job and left blood spots for police to find.
Forensic scientists later matched the blood with Amber-Rose, as well as other samples from inside Skantha’s BMW.
When the doctor dropped his young friend off, he claimed he would kill the boy, his family and his cat if he told police what happened.
Within hours, though, he did just that and Skantha was arrested the same day.
When interviewed by police the man repeatedly denied killing Amber-Rose.
"It's not in my nature. I promise you. I don't know where you're getting this from," Skantha said.
The court heard he would appeal the convictions on the basis of a miscarriage of justice.
