The parents of three children who were killed in the Oatlands crash have shared a powerful family portrait.
Danny Abdallah and his wife Leila shared a photograph to Facebook on Sunday showing the parents standing alongside their five living children – Liana, Alex, Michael, Selina and Mary.
The family were all dressed in white and posed behind a photograph of Sienna, 8, Angelina, 12, and Antony, 13.
The trio, along with their cousin Veronique Sakr, 11, were killed instantly in the horrific crash that unfolded in Oatlands, western Sydney, on February 1, 2020.
Eleven-year-old Charbel Kassas, who was another child in the group of seven kids struck down by the car, was badly injured and spent two months in a coma, while the driver Samuel William Davidson was jailed.
The Abdallahs shared a powerful message along with the latest family portrait.
‘My family is my greatest blessing, filling my life with love, strength, and joy. Antony, Angelina and Sienna are present with us in everything we do,’ the caption read.
It comes after Danny embraced Davidson as the pair met at Cessnock Correctional Centre in a Spotlight special aired on Channel Seven on Sunday night.
Davidson had been drunk, high on drugs and speeding when he ploughed into the group of seven children, who were out getting ice cream.
Danny and his wife Leila previously explained how they forgave Davidson so as not to ‘hold onto hate’ for the sake of their remaining children, but just how deep that goes was revealed in the extraordinary meeting.
Davidson, 34, had been sentenced to 20 years in prison with a non-parole period of 15 years, but Danny revealed that, if it were up to him, he would see him released tomorrow.
‘Whether it’s 100 years or one day, it’s not going to make me feel any different,’ Danny told Seven News Spotlight.
He explained his focus was on his children and that whether Davidson was in jail or not made no difference, but he understood that ‘justice was more for the community, to see that this type of behaviour is punished’.
The two also prayed together during the visit. Davidson previously revealed how he converted to become a Maronite Catholic, the same religion Danny and his family follow, largely due to how they had forgiven him.
Davidson also apologised to Danny, his family, emergency service workers who attended the scene, neighbours who witnessed the crash and the wider community, before he shared a warning to not get behind the wheel while intoxicated.
In the interview, Davidson also opened up about his hard-drinking lifestyle before the incident, pledging those days were behind him.
‘It’s a shame that I had to enjoy life under the influence of alcohol or anything like that to enjoy it, because I can tell you my thoughts about that are completely different now,’ he told the program.
Davidson, who spends up to 17 hours a day inside his cell, said it was important to him to keep a clean cell, the way he would at home.
‘I do try and keep it that way because I just think it looks better and yeah, it just makes it more homely. Yeah, I was like that on the outside too,’ he said.
With a decade still to serve, Davidson said he longed to be able to open and close a door for himself when he is finally freed from custody.
‘I’ve had a dream where I was waiting for a door to open at home. At home you just open a door, you know?’ he said.
‘Here you’ve got to wait for a door … freely opening it – I can’t wait,’ he said.
Danny has attributed his decision to forgive Davidson to his Christian faith, but he added it was also necessary for the sake of his marriage and surviving children.
‘At the end of the day, I’ve still got three other kids. I need to be a father too and I need to be a husband to my wife, and it’s already hard enough,’ he said.
Initially, he began speaking with Davidson because he ‘needed closure’.
But he said he also liked ‘confrontation’ and needed Davidson to know who he was and the hurt he had caused the family and why they had chosen to forgive him.
The Abdallah and Sakr families in 2024 unveiled a permanent memorial to their children at the crash site outside Oatlands Golf Club.
Danny and Leila also founded i4give Day, which occurs on February 1 each year, and marks the date of the crash.