The stepfather of Tatiana Dokhotaru has described the man responsible for her domestic violence murder in a Sydney apartment as an “unsociable degenerate” and a “monster” who has left the family begging for answers.
Dennis Thievin today told a Supreme Court judge that, from a young age, it was clear Ms Dokhotaru’s mother, Olya Dokhotaru, had raised her daughter to become “extraordinary” and someone who had “remarkable courage”.
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If destiny had been “kinder”, he said the talented tennis player may have been somewhere other than in Australia in May 2023.
But Mr Thievin said she found herself in an “awful predicament” with “nowhere to run” due to her volatile relationship with Danny Zayat, who a jury previously found murdered the 34-year-old in her Liverpool apartment.
Ms Dokhotaru called Triple Zero (000) and told an operator her ex was “trying to kill me” and was “stealing my money”.
That call was cut off after 89 seconds and CCTV footage showed a flash of light coming from the apartment balcony, which the Crown said was Zayat throwing the phone.
The jury found Zayat guilty by a majority 11–1 verdict, after prosecutors argued Ms Dokhotaru, whose body was found the following day when Zayat returned to the apartment, died from one or more blows in combination with a fall.
Danny Zayat was found guilty of murdering Tatiana Dokhotaru. (Supplied)
‘Vibrant young woman’ had changed
Mr Thievin, whose victim impact statement was also delivered on behalf of Olya Dokhotaru, said he noticed a change in Tatiana when she visited them in Canada in 2022.
The “vibrant young woman who’d gone to Australia with the greatest of dreams” no longer existed, he said.
She asked the couple if she could stay rather than return to “the monster who awaited … back in Australia”.
Tatiana’s stepfather says they noticed a change in her during her Canada visit in 2022. (Supplied)
Mr Thievin said that had they known returning to Australia would lead to her death, they would have found a way to help her hide.
“We will carry that guilt for the rest of our lives,” he said.
“Never had we fathomed that any human being could be so inhumane and so heartless with someone that we loved so much.”
Referring to 31-year-old Zayat as “a man I will call an unsociable degenerate”, Mr Thievin said the “stupidity” of the tragedy “tears me apart”.
“Why did he need to do this? Why could he not have simply taken her money and walked away without brutality?”
The jurors in the trial saw videos showing an inconsolable Zayat wailing to police on the night authorities were called to the apartment, and secretly recorded conversations in which he told associates she may have taken her own life.
Zayat is due to be sentenced by Justice Desmond Fagan this afternoon.