Danny Abdallah suffered the ultimate loss after a drunk driver mowed down his three children and niece. Now he reveals why he speaks to their killer every month – and the heartbreaking question he is always asked
Danny Abdallah has revealed the heartbreaking question he is asked in his monthly conversations with the driver who hit his three children and niece.
Abdallah’s children Anthony, 13, Angelina, 12, Sienna, eight, and their cousin Veronique Sakr, 11, were murdered on February 1, 2020 in Oatlands, western Sydney.
The four were in a group of seven on their way to buy ice cream when Samuel Davidson, who was under the influence of alcohol and drugs, bumped into them.
Davidson will spend a minimum of 15 years behind bars – after his sentence was reduced on appeal – but Mr Abdallah has not only forgiven him, he has visited the killer in prison and spoken to him every month.
The heartbroken father revealed that Davidson always asks him about his surviving children: his wife Leila is heavily pregnant with their eighth child.
Three of the children of Leila (left) and Danny Abdallah (right) were killed by a drunk and drugged driver on February 1, 2020
Danny, Alex and Leilah Abdallah (pictured) paid tribute to their lost relatives in an emotional tribute outside Oatlands Golf Club, in Sydney’s west, on Saturday
Mr Abdallah said he spent an hour with Davidson, who has converted to Maronite Catholic, the same religion as the Abdallahs, because he “needed closure”.
“After my wife and my children, I don’t think anyone has had more influence on my life than he has,” he told the newspaper. Daily telegram.
He said he likes “confrontation” and that Davidson needed to know who he was and the pain he had caused the family and why they had chosen to forgive him.
After the first face-to-face meeting, Mr Abdallah has had monthly ten-minute telephone conversations with the man who has caused him unimaginable pain.
“He asks about me and the kids and I ask how he’s doing and what he’s up to, and it’s just a very simple conversation… It’s all quite personal,” Abdallah said.
On Saturday, the Abdallah and Sakr families unveiled a permanent memorial to their children at the site of their deaths outside Oatlands Golf Club.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his predecessor Scott Morrison were there, as were NSW Premier Chris Minns and former Prime Minister Dominic Perrottet, all of whom have spent time with the family since the tragedy.
During the ceremony, Mr Abdallah thanked his wife for being his “pillar of strength” as they unveiled four sandstone pedestals with the faces of each of the children.
“Leila, thank you for being a pillar of strength and carrying your grief with grace and dignity,” he said.
“I remember coming here the day after the tragedy and every morning at dawn for the next few days, I was a broken man in tears asking God why?
“And then a family member came to me and said, ‘Danny, stop asking why and start asking how.'”
Their son Alex recalled how he cried that night as he watched his siblings and cousin die. “I got scared and hid in my mom’s car,” he said.
‘I didn’t want anything bad to happen. I looked at the car and saw Angelina lying on the ground and started crying.”
Ute driver Samuel Davidson (pictured), then 29, was driving erratically and too fast when he struck the group of seven children, killing four of them
Nearly 200 guests attended on Saturday and Mr Albanese spent his time praising the Abdallah’s ability to rise ‘from the deepest sorrow’.
Mr Morrison, who has become a close friend of the family, said the memorial had made the area more than just “a place of chaos”.
“Can you imagine the pain of not being able to get to your daughter (that night),” he said.
“Danny told me how he saw them putting sheets over their children under this tree.
‘The mountain of sadness, the mountain of tragedy, the mountain of tears, the mountain of questions and fear and the mountain of fear.
“Through their faith, they found a way to find forgiveness and cast that mountain into the sea.”
The Abdallahs said the monument (pictured) would finally bring them some much-needed closure
Alex (left) and Danny (right) gave emotional speeches about the grief they have experienced since a drunk driver killed three of Alex’s siblings and his cousin in early 2020
The pedestals are each printed with photos of the children and are placed before an etching with the phrase “eternal life, forgiveness through tragedy” and a plaque commemorating the surviving children.
The monument was finally confirmed after years of fighting for its erection by the Abdallahs when 80 percent of the Oatlands Golf Club board approved it last year.
The family said the memorial would bring them much-needed closure.
The family established the i4Give day foundation in 2023, with the aim of “raising community awareness of the power of forgiveness to transform human relationships and provide resilience for human flourishing.”