00:02Vicky Apostolopoulos' family came to court to pay tribute to a mother whose life was
00:07brutally cut short.
00:09Vicky was so much more than the victim of a horrific crime.
00:14She was so much more than just a name in a case.
00:17She was my sister.
00:18In 2024 Vicky was stabbed to death near the front door of her house in Bayswater in Melbourne's
00:24east.
00:24The killer was Milorad Zarek, a next door neighbour she'd known for 20 years.
00:29The court heard Zarek was high on the drug ketamine and chased his son with a knife into
00:34Vicky's house.
00:35When she opened the door, she was attacked.
00:38One of Vicky's sons bravely fought off the killer, enabling him and his brother to flee.
00:43Her children were her world.
00:45She doted on them and everything she did, she did was for them.
00:49After his arrest, Zarek told police he'd been snorting ketamine every 40 minutes.
00:54It was like I was possessed or something, he said.
00:57He chose to go down that path and look what he's done.
01:03Devastating results to all of us.
01:05Zarek's lawyers say his actions were completely out of character.
01:10He's pleaded guilty to murder and has already been told by a judge that the maximum sentence
01:15he'll receive is 22 years in jail.
01:18It feels like the legal system protects offenders and murderers more than it protects victims
01:23and their family.
01:25Who's care for my daughter's life?
01:27Who's care for my grandchildren?
01:30Nobody is there.
01:31A judge is yet to announce the sentence for Vicky's killer.
01:35He's likely to be jailed for at least two decades.
01:40Zarek with a judge.
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