A gym junkie charged with bashing his girlfriend who was later found dead in her high-rise apartment says he ‘knows it looks bad’ but claims her autopsy will prove his innocence.
Danny Zayat, 28, allegedly choked, assaulted, stalked and intimidated Tatiana Dokhotaru, 34, over a period of two years before she was found dead in her Liverpool apartment in Sydney‘s south-west in late May.
He has not been charged over her death and is out on bail on the 22 domestic violence charges.
Tatiana Dokhotaru (pictured) was found dead in her Liverpool apartment on May 27, 2023
Now the concreter from Colyton has broken his silence on the case, claiming he has been falsely portrayed as a a ‘monster’.
‘I know it looks bad. Like, I won’t say it doesn’t look bad,’ he told 7News’s Evan Batten.
‘I’ve been put out to look like a monster and it’s not right.’
Zayat denied he had harmed Ms Dokhotaru, the mother of his four-year-old child, on the night in question.
‘Look at me, look at her. How could I harm her if she was able to call the cops?’, he asked.
Ms Dokhotaru had called cops on Friday May 26 around 11.45pm to allege her partner was ‘bashing’ her but failed to give her address in the Pinnacle complex, which has 297 units.
Police were unable to find her until around 8pm the following day when Zayat returned to the apartment to check on her and called emergency services.
Danny Zayat (pictured), 28, allegedly choked, assaulted, stalked and intimidated Tatiana Dokhotaru, 34, over a period of two years before she was found dead in her Liverpool apartment in Sydney ‘s south-west in late May
When asked why Ms Dokhotaru called the police on the Friday night, Zayat claimed that ‘when you’re intoxicated on drugs and stuff, you just overexaggerate things sometimes’.
‘I pretty much arrived at the house and found her deceased, with my son in the house. It’s a bit hard to talk about at the moment,’ said Zayat, visibly choking back emotion.
He claims he raised the alarm and provided CPR.
‘I spoke to the ambulance, (they) told me to give her mouth to mouth, pumped her chest until the ambulance arrived and that’s pretty much it,’ he said.
He added: ‘People can think what they want you know, but the autopsy will come back and clear my name.’
Zayat claimed that if the police had managed to find her apartment on the Friday she ‘probably’ would still be alive.
‘When I found her body I pretty much seen her pale white and stuff. It looks like if someone was there in time they could have helped her out,’ he said.
A reporter from Daily Mail Australia was told to ‘f*** off’ when they attempted to speak to Zayat’s family last month.
His brother Mark launched into an aggressive foul-mouthed rant when asked about his sibling’s charges or whether the family would be standing by him.
‘F*** off, get out of my house,’ the heavily-tattooed tradesman said.
‘If you come back round here again… f*** off!’
Justice Wilson granted bail after acknowledging that Zayat (left) had no prior criminal history and that there was no risk to the community at large
In a bail hearing in the NSW Supreme Court last Thursday, Justice Helen Wilson noted that Zayat could face more serious allegations.
‘That’s the elephant in the room, isn’t it? Is he going to be charged with murder?’ she asked.
However, the judge said any bail application would have to be considered on the domestic violence allegations only and not a hypothetical future charge.
‘It’s not for this court … to remand someone so he’s available to be charged with murder at some later stage,’ she said.
Zayat was previously denied bail at Liverpool Local Court, and escalated his bid to the Supreme Court.
His barrister Ertunc Ozen SC conceded on Thursday that the couple had a turbulent and toxic relationship, but said Zayat had been heard running through the hallway of the Liverpool block shouting ‘help me’ around the time of Ms Dokhotaru’s death.
Danny Zayat has been charged with a raft of domestic violence offences after his former partner Tatiana ‘Tania’ Dokhotaru, 34, was found dead on Saturday. The pair are pictured together in 2021
Zayat also called triple zero with police observing him in extreme distress when they arrived, the barrister added.
Mr Ozen said Ms Dokhotaru was dependent on the painkiller OxyContin, the abuse of which could have serious respiratory effects, and that the results of toxicology and pathology reports were needed.
The crown prosecutor rejected this as a mere assertion, saying there was no evidence of any intoxication or addiction.
Justice Wilson granted bail after acknowledging that Zayat had no prior criminal history and that there was no risk to the community at large.
His bail conditions include that he reside with his mother in Colyton, report to police daily and be subject to a nightly curfew.
His mother will also hand over $20,000 which will be forfeited if Zayat fails to appear before the court.
His matter will next come before Campbelltown Local Court on August 8.
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