Dr Venod Skantha is on trial for the murder of the 16-year-old.
Weeks before a teenage girl was killed, a Dunedin doctor allegedly molested her and offered her up to $20,000 for sex.
A witness told the High Court at Dunedin this afternoon Venod Skantha's interest in 16-year-old Amber-Rose Rush was "just very creepy, I guess; very weird how much he seemed to like [her]".
The 32-year-old is on trial accused of murdering the teen on February 2 last year, as well as four counts of threatening to kill.
The Crown says just minutes before the victim's death she had threatened to go to authorities with allegations of sexual impropriety against Skantha, that he offered young girl's money for sex and supplied alcohol to minors.
Amber-Rose's friend, whose name was suppressed because he was under 18 at the time, told the court this afternoon he regularly socialised with her and the defendant through 2017 and early 2018.
He first noticed physical contact between the pair during a party at Skantha's South Dunedin rental.
Skantha is on trial for the murder of Amber-Rose, who was found stabbed to death in the bedroom of her Corstorphine home on February 3 last year.
The Crown says just minutes before the victim's death she had threatened to go to authorities with allegations of sexual impropriety against the defendant, that he offered young girls money for sex and supplied alcohol to minors.
A witness told the jury this afternoon she had been at a party with her boyfriend at Skantha's home in June 2017.
The next day, they were speaking about one of her schoolmates when the defendant allegedly chipped in.
"Vinny asked would she have sex with him for $400," she said.
"He asked me to ask her and I said that I wouldn't."
She kicked out at him and went to sleep on the couch.
The next day, when she was getting a drink from the kitchen, Skantha allegedly approached.
''He said if I told anyone, he would kill me,'' she said.
''I was just scared.''
In cross-examination, the witness confirmed it had only been three weeks ago that she had added the allegation of the threat to her original statement about being groped.
"I was too afraid to mention it," she said. "I thought he was going to do it."
She also told Eaton that after the threat, she accompanied Skantha to the supermarket to buy breakfast for everyone at the house.
On the way there, she allegedly confronted him about the previous evening's events.
Eaton suggested that made no sense if the woman was so scared of the defendant.
"Is it possible you got yourself a little bit boozed and a little bit out of your depth . . . and you got a fright, that's all that happened," the lawyer asked.
"All that stuff happened . . . I wouldn't make something up like that," the witness replied.
The court also heard yesterday from a witness who said Amber-Rose had complained to her about being molested by the doctor in January 2018 – a month before her death.
"She said that she thought she may have been drugged as she woke up with Vinny's hand down her pants and her top and bra was removed," Lyndze Parrett said.
The woman said she later raised it with Skantha and he could not remember such an incident.