A dad whose three children were devastatingly killed by a drunk driver has come face to face with their killer.
Five years on from the tragedy, father-of-three Danny Abdallah bravely visited the maximum security prison where Samuel Davidson is serving his sentence.
Incredibly, he revealed why he would free the 35-year-old tomorrow 'if it was up to him'.
Davidson was three times over the legal alcohol limit and had also consumed drugs when his car mounted the pavement in the suburb of Oatlands in Sydney, Australia.
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He crashed into numerous youngsters who were on their way to buy ice creams from a supermarket during the incident in February 2020, severely injuring three of them.
Four of the children - siblings Siennah, 8, Angelina, 12 and Antony Abdallah, 12 and their cousin Veronique Sakr, 11 - were killed instantly.
Davidson pleaded guilty to manslaughter, three separate charges relating to the injuries inflicted upon the three surviving children and driving under the influence.
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He was initially sentenced to 28 years in prison and with a non-parole period of 21 years, but this was decreased in 2022 on appeal.
The former professional truck driver was instead given a 20 year sentence and is not eligible to apply for parole for at least 15 years.
In a poignant victim impact statement read out in court, Abdallah told the drunk driver: "You have ripped my heart out and ran over it in your car.
"While you were destroying your life with drugs and alcohol I was building a life for my children," the grieving parent said at the time, as per the Daily Mail.
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"While you were out partying destroying your life, I was sowing into my life good seeds that future generations would reap.
"Whatever sentence you get, it will never be enough for the loss we have had."
Since, Abdallah has found the strength to forgive the man who is responsible for the deaths of Siennah, Angelina, Antony and his niece Veronique.
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He privately sat down with Davidson as part of Corrective Services NSW’s restorative justice program, before allowing 7News cameras to join another meeting.
While speaking to the drunk driver in the prison where he is spending the next two decades of his life, the dad told him: "If it was up to me, I’ll bring him out tomorrow.
"I know the guy. Justice is to have my kids back. That’s all. If you’ve got one day or you’ve got a hundred years, it’s not going to change how I feel."
Discussing how he came to feel like this, Abdallah said: "It was a moment where I saw a person that’s probably living with the pain of killing four children and giving one child brain damage.
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"Putting my parent hat aside, I could see that he’s living in a place of guilt, and I always say, if I had to give him a gun and say, ‘you either shoot those kids or shoot yourself’, he’d probably say, ‘I’ll shoot myself instead.’
"So what do I do with that? Do I just keep hurting him? Do I keep hating him? What’s it going to do? It’s not going to do anything."
Davidson described the bereaved father as an 'absolutely amazing man', but said he doesn't believe he 'deserves' to be free.
"It was an accident and I didn’t mean it, but I’m at fault and I’ve done that," he said. "I don’t believe I deserve any...him even talking to me was a blessing.
"I was just happy with that. He keeps amazing me. He’s just an incredible person and I just want to be everything like him."
After the drunk driver apologised for the heartbreak he caused again, Abdallah responded: "I’ve forgiven you already. Thanks, brother."
Reflecting on the night that changed his life in February 2020, Davidson said he 'couldn't remember much' apart from 'running a red light'.
"We had no control over the car," he admitted. "I took the corner so fast that not even a race car driver could’ve pulled that off in a professional car, so it was just never going to happen."
Olivia Burke