A young child’s account to the police revealed that they heard screams from their bed before discovering a woman deceased on the couch the following morning.
Authorities have charged 30-year-old Danny Zayat, the woman’s former partner, with her murder, which allegedly took place soon after she dialed emergency services.
The child attempted to wake the woman, identified as Dokhotaru, before Zayat arrived and contacted the police and medical responders.
“No waking up,” the child recounted during a police interview.
Police were informed about a quarrel between the pair the night before, during which a television set and a glass vase were shattered.
In a subsequent interview conducted in September 2025, the child reported to police that there was no blood on Dokhotaru.
They said they heard the woman “screaming … ‘help me, help me’.”
During questioning today, the child said Zayat did not break the television or vase but he had been “fake crying” when police arrived.
“He was crying but he wasn’t sad,” the child told defence barrister Madeleine Avenell SC.
Jurors also heard of injuries and threats to Dokhotaru in the year before she died.
Her mother Olya Dokhotaru and stepfather Denis Thievin, who both live in Canada, recounted their daughter’s visit in 2022 during which she spoke to Zayat almost daily over the phone.
Olya said she heard the concreter threaten to kill his ex-partner if she didn’t return home, while calling her a “f—— fat slut” and a “white f—— bitch”.
“I can’t imagine that a young man can speak like that with his wife,” she said.
Thievin said there was a lot of screaming during these calls and his stepdaughter was typically crying.
“These were not pleasant phone calls,” he said.
When Dokhotaru returned to Australia, she moved into an apartment instead of a house so she could be around neighbours for safety, the court heard.
Weeks before she was found dead, the 34-year-old sent a video to her mother – played to the court – which showed bruises around her throat.
“You can see the fingerprints around her neck,” Olya said.
The day before her body was discovered, Dokhotaru told her mother via text that she was at the doctor with “bad bruising”.
She said she had fallen over her vacuum cleaner and hit the table.
Zayat has pleaded not guilty to murder, denying his involvement in his ex-partner’s death or being responsible for any physical violence towards her in their relationship.
He faces an alternative charge of manslaughter.
The concreter called triple zero the day after her alleged murder, attempted CPR, and was seen crying and wailing when police attended the Liverpool unit.
He said Dokhotaru previously expressed thoughts of suicide and had been depressed when he left her the night before.
An autopsy revealed she died from blunt-force head trauma.
Her death was hastened but not caused by various substances in her system, the jury heard.
The trial continues tomorrow.
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