Married at First Sight star Jessika Power has broken down in tears over the execution-style killing of her ex-boyfriend, Melbourne underworld figure Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim – remembering him as a ‘great protector’.
Having survived several attempts on his life, Abdulrahim, 32, was gunned down in a car park outside the Quest Hotel on High Street in the north Melbourne suburb of Preston about 10am on Tuesday.
The former Mongol bikie had a short-lived romance with the MAFS star in 2019, shortly after he was released from prison, where he had served time over a deadly high-speed crash.
Jessika told Daily Mail Australia her fears about the underworld were one of the reasons she ended the relationship with Abdulrahim.
But, she said, he had continued to support her behind the scenes, even up until a few months ago.
‘It’s been really, really hard to hear,’ Jessika said through tears.
‘We ended on really good terms. He’s always been supportive to me if I needed him, even up until a few months ago.
‘I just feel so sad for his wife and his child – she’s going to grow up without a dad and it’s such a toxic world to be in that underworld thing.’
Jessika paid tribute to her former partner as someone who was a ‘great protector’.
‘Everybody looks at these bikies and Mongols as bad people, but he was a family man, he was dedicated to his family,’ she said.
‘He was protective of his family and he was certainly protective of me when we were together.
‘He’s a dad, he’s a husband, he’s someone’s son and he’s just a really good guy.’
Jessika met Abdulrahim through mutual friends. They debuted their relationship on Instagram on May 14, 2019, posting a photo of the pair together while she was getting a facial scrub.
She shared another photo of the duo cuddling up at a party days later, and the pair were pictured passionately kissing at Melbourne Airport on May 22, with the couple deciding to ‘take things slowly’.
Jessica said that despite Abdulrahim’s positive qualities, it was his underworld connections that scuttled the pair’s short-lived romance.
‘I just feel like that underworld thing at the minute in Melbourne and Sydney is just getting out of hand,’ she said.
‘It was part of the reason why I ended up leaving because I just didn’t want to be around that.
‘It makes my head rattle because there are all these people are out there having these wars, but basically you’re assassinating someone’s father, brother or kid’.
Shortly after they met, Abdulrahim had just served two years of a three-years-and-three-months jail sentence he received after pleading guilty to killing a great-grandmother, 88-year-old Muriel Hulett, in a high-speed car crash in 2015.
The former bikie had been driving at 110km/h down the wrong side of the road in a 60km/h zone when he lost control of his Ferrari Spider and slammed into three cars, before hitting Mrs Hulett’s vehicle front-on. She died eight days later.
Over the years, Abdulrahim had been the target of three murder contracts, a prison bashing, three assaults, a dozen fire bombings and seven shootings.
In one attempted hit he was shot eight times and survived, and in another he escaped a barrage of bullets.
Jessika added that her bother Rhyce Power, who also briefly appeared on the Channel Nine reality show, was also devastated over the news of Abdulrahim’s death.
‘I just got off the phone to him and he’s devastated as well,’ she said.
‘He’s been a good friend to my brother for years as well.
‘This is just so f***ing sad.’