Sevin Zakuti appears in a photo distributed by the RCMP in 2019.

Image Credit: Merritt RCMP

A BC man charged with sexual assault and violence against his partner will be released from custody having spent seven months behind bars.

Yesterday, July 15, at the Vernon courthouse, Sevin Zakuti had been due to begin a trial on charges of sexual assault and assault with a weapon but instead pleaded guilty to a single charge of assaulting his partner in July 2023.

Following the incident that took place in Spallumcheen, Zakuti, who goes by the name Sebastian, was charged with assault, sexual assault, assault with a weapon and three charges of uttering threats.

After yesterday's guilty plea, as he's already spent 210 behind bars waiting to go to trial, he received a sentence of time already served.

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Zakuti, born 1979, has a history of intimate partner violence and made headlines in 2019 when Merritt RCMP made a public request for victims to come forward after reports from vulnerable members of that community.

RCMP later arrested Zakuti and charged him with forcible confinement, use of a firearm to commit an indictable offence, possession of a firearm while prohibited, pointing a firearm, sexual assault, sexual assault with a firearm and uttering threats.

While Zakuti faced more than 40 charges concerning sex-related and violent allegations from four separate victims, he was found not guilty in one case and pleaded guilty to a single charge of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and all the remaining charges were stayed. He spent almost a year in prison that time.

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The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that Zakuti has now been put on 18 months of probation.

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