A restaurant director for luxury steakhouse Gaucho abused his former partner before choking her until she believed she would die. Dimitri Prassinos, 41, arrived at the home of Lydia Itiokiet whilst intoxicated and demanded to see his children, insulting her as a “daddy’s princess”.
Liverpool Crown Court heard from prosecutor Suzanne Payne that the couple had been in a relationship for roughly 15 years but had separated four years ago. They share two children, currently aged 12 and five, whilst Ms Itiokiet also has a 16-year-old son from a prior relationship.
When the victim asked Prassinos to leave, he hit her across the face before pinning her down and strangling her until she temporarily lost consciousness. After she managed to fight back and stand up, Prassinos appeared shocked by his actions and quietly asked for his glasses, The Echo reports.
However, when challenged over the telephone by the victim’s eldest son, Prassinos launched into further verbal aggression, warning the teenager that he was “a dead man walking”. The abuser kept his head lowered throughout much of Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, though the court was told he will remarkably be keeping his role at the city centre establishment.
Ms Payne told the court it was a “volatile relationship” and the pair had broken up on a number of occasions. She said at one point Ms Itiokiet’s dad had “banned” Prassinos from seeing her, but he repeatedly “worked his way back in”.
The court heard on December 8, 2024 the victim was at home with her two younger children when the defendant called at around 11.20pm. Ms Payne said Prassinos was drunk and was demanding to see his children, despite him pre-arranging to see them the following day.
When Ms Itiokiet asked if he was drunk, he told her he had been working 70 hours and deserved a drink. Over the next forty minutes the defendant called his ex-partner another 11 times, before turning up at her house. Ms Itiokiet allowed him into her home where he drunkenly swayed in the hallway, calling her “spoilt” and a “daddy’s princess”, because the victim’s dad had recently helped her decorate.
He also accused her of sleeping with other men and repeatedly said a racial slur. Ms Itiokiet told him to get out of her house, prompting the thug to strike her to the right side of her face. The court heard he knocked her to the floor and, when she tried to scramble to pick up her phone to call for help, repeatedly stamped on her hands and arms.
Ms Payne said the defendant then got on top of his victim, putting “both hands around her throat, his thumbs pressing into the back of her neck and his fingers pushing into her windpipe”. He then said “I’m going to choke you out”.
The victim said she did not know how long he was on top of her but she believed she may have briefly lost consciousness. “She believed she was going to die”, Ms Payne said.
The court heard Ms Itiokiet managed to fight back and threw several punches, eventually managing to break free and stand up. She felt dizzy and was gasping for breath, Ms Payne said, and “there was blood everywhere”.
She again told Prassinos to get out of her house, but all the bully replied was “my glasses, my glasses” after they had been knocked to the ground in the struggle. Ms Itiokiet threw the defendant his glasses who, after seeing her face, was “shocked”, said Ms Payne. The victim called her mum who came to collect her children.
Ms Itiokiet’s oldest son also came home and called Prassinos and questioned: “What have you done to my mum?” Prassinos responded: “Who do you think you are? Some big man? You are a dead man walking.”
The victim went for treatment at the Royal. She suffered bruising and swelling around her face and at the back of her neck and found it sore to swallow. Ms Payne said Ms Itiokiet had described her feelings that she thought she was going to die and said “if she was killed then her children would have seen her lying on the floor”.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Ms Itiokiet said: “As the assault only happened days before Christmas, what was supposed to be a happy period was awful. The bruising to my face was so bad I could not go out of the house.”
The court heard the victim’s daughter had told school that “daddy has made mummy look like a monster”.
Ms Itiokiet said she continued to have flashbacks to the moment she was strangled and replayed the attack in her head. She added she struggled to sleep and get motivated and no longer was in employment after a medical assessment determined she was not fit to work.
Ms Itiokiet said she could not settle in her house and “was constantly moving furniture to feel comfortable”. She added: “I can’t even be in Liverpool anymore and spent time out of Merseyside with family to avoid the area.” She is hopeful of being rehoused so she can “start over and rebuild a family home,” the court heard.
Ms Payne added that the victim remained on medication and was showing symptoms of PTSD, although undiagnosed. “It is fair to say the effect on her is significant and still ongoing,” she said.
Prassinos, of Tweed Close in Kensington, pleaded guilty to intentional strangulation and assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) in March this year, around a month before he was due to go on trial. He had three convictions for three offences, including ABH in 2009 and possession of a bladed article in a public place in 2011. He received suspended sentences for both.
In mitigation, Isabelle Haddad, defending, told the court that her client was “under no illusion of the seriousness of the offence and is deeply ashamed of his actions”.
She told the court that he was a “hardworking man” who worked as the general manager of a city centre restaurant. She said he was “well-respected” and had responsibility for a team of 80 people. Ms Haddad added: “His workplace is aware and a member of senior staff is waiting outside. He will keep his employment despite the convictions.”
The defence lawyer said his family described him as “reliable and kind”, which “showed another side to this defendant”. The court heard Prassinos had four children, aged between five and 12, and was the main financial provider to all of them.
The court heard the defendant had attended anger management courses and weekly counselling meetings. Ms Haddad said the issues stemmed from the defendant “bottling up issues of childhood trauma”, which resulted to two sudden sibling deaths.
“It is clear the deaths of two siblings left him with difficulty to regulate his emotions,” Ms Haddad said. She added: “He has not buried his head in the sand or sought to minimise. He is trying to turn himself around.”
Sentencing, Judge David Potter said: “Lydia was in the security of her own home with both children upstairs asleep. She received the first of 12 drunken telephone calls. You were telling, not asking, that you were coming around because you wanted to see the children. When challenged you said you deserved a drink and were coming anyway.
“She answered eight of the next 11 calls and you informed her you were coming around, so you did. You were drunk, she allowed you entry and you then made a demand to see the children who were tucked up and asleep in bed. You abused her verbally, accusing her of sleeping with other men and making racial slurs. And then in your drunken rage you then committed an assault upon Lydia.”
The judge added: “In sentencing you I must have regard to the effect on Lydia herself. She was shocked and embarrassed by the extent of her swollen and bruised face. She has had flash backs to the moment you strangled her and is no longer fit for work.
“She felt unsafe in her own home and she awaits being rehoused. She has remained on medication, she has issues with her sleep…on any view these events would have left their psychological scars and will continue to do so for the future.”
Prassinos, who wore a black suit and tie and sported cropped dark hair, was sentenced to three years in prison. He will also be subject to restraining orders against his victim and her teenage son for seven years.
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Supported in court by a number of his family, some appeared to be crying, Prassinos did not react as he was told to go with the officer. A number of Ms Itiokiet’s family were in the public gallery to watch proceedings.