A Florida man who claimed he was brutally beaten and left permanently blind by his ex-boyfriend’s family says he thought he was going to die during the assault, according to a new report.
The unidentified victim, 31, told WSVN-TV in an interview this week that her beau, 21-year-old Oleh Makarenko, told her his parents learned of their relationship and were furious.
During a two-week relationship hiatus, prosecutors say, Oleh and his parents, Inna Makarenko, 44, and Yevhen Makarenko, 43, showed up at the victim’s Pompano Beach home in August.
The victim said Oleh turned on him and joined his parents in the attack.
“I thought I was going to die and there was no way I was going to get out of there alive,” the man – now permanently blind – told the outlet.
Inna and Yevhen Makarenko, who accused the victim of turning their son gay, face charges of attempted murder with their child, prosecutors say.
“[Oleh] was a little scared of his family or very scared of his family,” the victim told authorities, according to the outlet. “He was telling me that his father treated him like he wasn’t even his child, that his mother was trying to force him to marry a girl, and I’m quoting what his mother told him. She wanted… the force to marry a girl to ‘take all that [expletive] out of his head.
Oleh, whom he called Alex, and the parents confronted him before the assault.
“Alex told me he hated me, and I said [his parents], like, ‘Unfortunately, whatever you do won’t change the fact that your son is gay. I’m sorry, but your son is gay,” he recalled.
The man first told authorities he had been seriously injured after falling during a drunken episode before later recovering his memory of the event and filing a complaint.
The Makarenkos have all pleaded not guilty and their attorneys deny involvement in any attack.
