A Sydney father says discovering his roadside memorial to his kids killed by a drunk driver had been destroyed felt like a "knife" to the heart.
Danny Abdallah's three children - Anthony, 13; Angelina, 12; and Sienna, nine - along with their 11-year-old cousin Veronique Sakr, died after they were hit by a 4WD in February 2020.
The kids were biking to get ice cream with four other children when the vehicle driven by Samuel Davidson, 29, hit them. Davidson's blood alcohol reading was allegedly three times over New South Wales' legal limit, 7 News reports.
Abdallah had set up a temporary memorial on the northwestern Sydney street where his children and niece died. In a Facebook post on Sunday, he revealed it had been torn down in the night.
"Last night I drove past and it felt like a knife was put in my heart. Somebody had the nerve to strip down my kids' pictures and strip down the temporary memorial on Bettington Rd where the kids passed away."
He said the perpetrator "obviously didn't have the courage" to commit their act of vandalism during the day, and was stumped as to why the picture frames and memorial would be torn down.
"All over Australia there are memorials in honour of people that have died in car accidents and I have never heard of anyone attempting to get rid of them," he wrote.
"It disappoints me that the person (s) wouldn't have the decency to reach out and talk to me.
"This is legal and I am not breaking the law, it's public space and we are allowed to have it there. This is the last memory I have with my children."
Abdallah was forced to rebuild the memorial.
In images posted to Facebook, he can be seen attaching photos of the children to a wire fence next to the footpath as well as a large cross and other memorabilia.
"Memorial or no memorial, that place will always be reminded of those beautiful children having their lives cut short," he said.
"I hope and pray we can having (sic) something permanent in the near future."
He asked Facebook users to drop flowers off at the memorial as a sign of support.
Just last month Abdallah's family was the target of thieves. According to 7 News, their house was broken into and several personal possessions were stolen.
Leila Abdallah told 7 News the items were of sentimental value: "With every item, we have memories of our kids. He took a watch but it's not about the watch, this watch reminds me of me and Angelina walking together to the store to buy this watch."
