Serhiy Dovzhenko was a former police investigator from the port city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. In May 2002 he was detained; in January 2003 a trial began in his home city; and on September 8, 2003 a visiting panel of the Donetsk Oblast Court of Appeal found him guilty of 17 murders and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The prosecution had charged him with 21 killings, and during the investigation he had admitted 19. The killings spanned about four years, from 1998 to May 2002, and the victims included a 12-year-old girl.
His name is written Serhiy Dovzhenko in Ukrainian and Sergei Dovzhenko in Russian.
Dovzhenko was born on June 30, 1972, in Mariupol. He trained as a commodity specialist at a technical school and served in the army. He also boxed and held the title of master of sport; he twice finished as runner-up at the Ukrainian championships. After the Soviet Union dissolved he went into trade and found work with a private firm. In early 1997 he joined the police as a criminal investigation officer in Mariupol. He served about six months.
His police career ended in June 1997. He was detained on suspicion in a case involving a death at the office of his former employer. He spent eight months in detention. A court found that he had not been involved in that death. He was nonetheless dismissed, was sentenced to eight months on a charge involving forged documents, and was refused work in law enforcement each time he applied afterward. His brother, a lawyer, had defended him in the case.
This episode became the center of the explanation he gave for what followed. He told journalists that he had set out to take revenge on the leadership of the Mariupol police, who had held him on a charge he said was false, and to spoil their clearance statistics by committing crimes they could not solve.
The first killing attributed to Dovzhenko in the case file took place in November 1998. The later episodes ran through 1999, 2000 and 2001 and ended in May 2002. The full list of counts is not on record. The events were separate and took place in and around Mariupol: couples, a mother with her son, a father with his son, and, in 2001, an elderly woman together with her granddaughter, who was 12. The last two killings took place on May 17 and 18, 2002.
Investigators did not accept that revenge explained the series. Police officials argued that he acted for profit, and a court-ordered psychiatric examination concluded that he took satisfaction in the killings themselves. The prosecutor named three motives: revenge, greed and a thirst for excitement. Dovzhenko's own lawyer, Ihor Nadolko, argued that revenge on the officers he blamed for the 1997 case was the only motive.
Dovzhenko was detained in Mariupol in May 2002, shortly after the last killings, and was held in custody while the case was prepared. By November 2002 the case file ran to 23 volumes; the Donetsk Oblast Court of Appeal received the file and the indictment on November 11 of that year.
The charges numbered 21 murders, of which he admitted 19. A 12-year-old girl was among the dead. A court-ordered psychiatric examination found him sane.
Because the court of appeal lacked funds to travel, the start of the trial was delayed; his lawyer said in November 2002 that it would not open before January. A first session set for January 8, 2003, was canceled because the lay assessors did not appear. The trial opened on January 9, 2003, at the Primorsky district court in Mariupol, with a visiting panel of the Donetsk Oblast Court of Appeal presiding. The presiding judge was Ihor Tereshchenko, who read the indictment aloud for about six hours. The court refused a request that Dovzhenko's brother act as his defender.
The hearing was held under unusually tight security because about 40 relatives of the dead attended. Four survivors confirmed his guilt in court. The prosecutor was Viacheslav Sevalnikov. Dovzhenko's lawyer said he would appeal and ask for some episodes to be classified under the article on terrorism, a proposal the prosecutor said did not withstand criticism.
In November 2002 the Ukrainian parliament ratified Protocol No. 13, which abolishes the death penalty, so Dovzhenko did not face execution.
On September 8, 2003, the visiting panel found Dovzhenko guilty of 17 murders. The court imposed three life sentences, also given as a single sentence of life imprisonment with confiscation of property. The article of the Criminal Code and the exact wording of each count are not on record.
Two episodes, those of a businessman and a city administration employee in 1998 and 1999, were separated into other proceedings because the court did not find his guilt in them proven. The figure of 21 victims is also given for the verdict; the conviction itself is for 17.
In October 2003 Dovzhenko filed a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court of Ukraine, calling the conviction unlawful. In June 2004 the prosecutor said the case had not yet reached the Supreme Court. At Dovzhenko's request he had been allowed to re-read all 23 volumes and the trial transcript before the court took up the appeal. The prosecutor filed objections asking the Supreme Court to uphold the verdict, and said he expected Dovzhenko to keep using every legal option to delay the sentence taking effect, which would send him to a life-sentence colony.
Dovzhenko appealed several times and changed his testimony, but the verdict was left in force. The date and wording of the Supreme Court's decision are not on record.
In October 2025 he was reported to be serving a life sentence. His prison is not on record.
The number of victims differs by stage of the case. Twenty-one murders were charged, 19 were admitted during the investigation and the verdict covers 17. Two further episodes were separated from the trial. The 1997 death at his former employer's office was never proven against him; a court found he had not been involved.
June 30, 1972: born in Mariupol.
Early 1997: joins the police in Mariupol.
June 1997: detained over a death at a former employer's office; released after eight months, later cleared.
November 1998: first killing in the case file.
1999 to 2001: further killings in and around Mariupol.
May 2002: last killings (dated May 17 and 18); Dovzhenko detained.
November 11, 2002: the Donetsk Oblast Court of Appeal receives the case.
January 9, 2003: trial opens in Mariupol.
September 8, 2003: convicted of 17 murders; life imprisonment.
October 2003: appeal to the Supreme Court of Ukraine.
June 2004: the appeal had not yet been heard.