‘This is not a man’: Tragic details reveal pattern of abuse before DV murder

Warning: Distressing content

The horrific pattern of abuse in the lead-up to a woman’s brutal murder by her ex-partner has been revealed, as her grieving family slam the “demon” who killed their daughter.

Danny Zayat was found guilty by a jury of killing his former partner, Tatiana Dokhotaru, inside her Liverpool unit on May 26, 2023.

He was on Friday jailed for a maximum of 24 years with a non-parole period of 18 years over the horrific murder. He will be eligible for parole in March 2043.

Justice Desmond Fagan detailed the pattern of disturbing physical and verbal abuse Zayat hurled at Ms Dokhotaru, including an assault so severe in the week before her murder she thought her ribs had been broken.

Zayat then recorded her lying on the floor slurring her words, “incapacitated and distressed”, in the aftermath, repeatedly telling her to “get up” while standing over her. Justice Fagan described the video as “disturbing” and a “picture of cowardice and cruelty”.

“(The) few words she was able to utter were of despair defeat and suicide,” Justice Fagan said during sentencing in the Supreme Court of NSW on Friday morning.

Ms Dokhotaru was “worn down and defeated” by Zayat by this stage, and his fixation on her, and stalking and intimidation shadowed her life.

She felt “humiliated” by his violent control over her life, which may have prompted her to lie to friends and family about how she had been injured.

Similarly, Zayat told work mates Ms Dokhotaru had fallen down the stairs, and took time off work to stay with her, which Justice Fagan had no doubt was an attempt to intimidate her.

Weeks earlier, she had sent her mother, Olya, a photo of her bruised neck where Zayat had most recently choked her.

Olya urged her daughter to call the police, telling her: “This is not a man, and such people do not stop.”

In the seven weeks before the murder, Zayat had time to realise his actions “were wrong by any human standard”, Justice Fagan said.

He added Zayat had six months notice ahead of the fatal attack that Ms Dokhotaru “could no longer live with his abuse”.

“There was ample time for him to get a grip,” he said.“Instead, he pressed on with the final, lethal assault.”

‘He will kill me’: Chilling allegations before murder

The trial was told of allegations of domestic violence in the lead up to Ms Dokhotaru’s death, which her stepfather Denis Thievin said“continue ringing in our ears”.

“(Her) social circle in Canada heard it all, that she’d been dragged by the hair, pounded with bare fists, spit on, choked, and bashed,” he said.

“The chilling facts that we heard continue ringing in our ears. They can’t be unheard.”

Ms Dokhotaru had claimed Zayat dragged her by her hair, spat at her, threw her phone, and told her he was going to kill her, according to texts she sent just weeks before she was killed that were detailed in documents released by the court.

“I was fighting him off I tried calling the cops and he said he will kill me if I do,” the text read.

“It was absolute hell my body is in shock.”

Tatiana Dokhotaru made a desperate call to triple-0 before she was murdered in her apartment by her ex-partner Danny Zayat.

‘Death warrant’: Family’s guilt

Mr Thievin claimed he and Ms Dokhotaru’s mother, Olya, had signed the young woman’s “death warrant” when she visited them in Canada in 2022.

She had asked to stay with them rather than return to the “monster” awaiting her back home, but Olya told her daughter to go work things out as staying could invite legal consequences.

“Our refusal was essentially (her) death warrant, “ Mr Thievin said.

“If we had known that it would lead to this … we absolutely would have found a way at any cost to hide (her) in Canada.

“We will carry that guilt for the rest of our lives.”

Mr Thievin said he had known a “vibrant young woman”, but “that person no longer existed” by the time she visited them in 2022.

“Over the weeks of her visit … (it was) clear her relationship with Danny Zayat had been a life choice gone horribly wrong,” he said.

“She found herself in an awful predicament and now there was nowhere to run.”

The court was previously told that Zayat was overheard by Olya abusing Ms Dokhotaru during a phone call while she was visiting them in Canada.

Olya said she overheard Zayat, while he was on speakerphone, calling her daughter a “fat slut” and telling her “come home and I’ll kill you”.

‘Demon’: DV killer lashed by grieving family

Ms Dokhotaru’s heartbroken stepfather spoke of the grief he and the young woman’s mother continue to live with in a victim impact statement read out on Friday morning.

He called Zayat a heartless “demon” and an “unsociable degenerate”.

“Never had we fathomed that any human being could be so inhumane and so heartless with someone that we love so much,” Mr Thievin told the court.

An only child, Ms Dokhotaru was remembered as a courageous, extraordinary woman, and an “admirable” tennis player.

“An only child cannot be ruthlessly deleted from your life without leaving a feeling that you’ve been robbed of pretty much everything,” Mr Thievin said.

“Now more than two years since the brutal murder I still hear crying regularly in the bedroom that Tatiana once occupied.

“I can almost guarantee that I’ll find Olya in the foetal position with items of clothing to her nose, breathing the familiar scent of a beautiful soul she’d known better than anyone in the entire world and sobbing uncontrollably over the horrible, unnecessary event that changed our lives forever.”

Killer’s crocodile tears

Ms Dokhotaru desperately called triple-0 before she was killed, telling the operator “He’s bashing me” and that her ex-partner was stealing her money.

However, the call was cut short before she could give her full address, with prosecutors alleging that Zayat grabbed the phone, ended the call and threw it from her 22nd floor balcony.

He was captured on CCTV hurriedly leaving her unit about three minutes after the call ended.

She was found dead 20 hours later, when Zayat returned to her unit.She suffered three head injuries. Zayat denied harming Ms Dokhotaru throughout the trial.

Chilling body-worn police footage showed him hysterically crying after emergency services arrived at her unit, which prosecutors say were crocodile tears.

news.com.au mental health helplines