Carl Williams’ daughter Dhakota opens up ahead of 21st birthday

Dhakota Williams, the daughter of slain underworld figure Carl Williams, wants to “prove people wrong” ahead of her 21st birthday.

Just like any 20-year-old, Dhakota Williams has big dreams and wants to do her parents proud.

Dhakota though didn’t have a normal childhood. Australians would remember her as the young daughter of slain underworld figure, Carl Williams. Specifically, she would be known from a candid snap of her cherub face as a young girl being carried by her father during a prison visit and later, the heartbreaking image of the little child tearily clutching a photograph of the criminal kingpin at his funeral.

“I don’t want people to think I have deadbeat parents, that I am going to be nothing,” Williams told The Daily Telegraph.

Dhakota at 21. Picture: Alex Coppel.

“It makes me so determined to want to prove people wrong because that is absolutely not how it is at all. Regardless of what my parents did or didn’t do, the bad things if that is what you want to call it, it doesn’t mean that I am any less of a person than someone else.

“I still have potential to be whatever I want to be, the world is my oyster. I can be whatever I want to be regardless of what people may or may not think of my family.”

With her mother, Roberta Williams in the kitchen nearby, Dhakota sat down with the Telegraph at their Melbourne home ahead of her milestone 21st birthday on March 10.

She finished Year 12 just over two years ago and is working for the family transport business with her uncle and sister. When younger, she had dreamt of becoming a lawyer but is now planning on studying business management at university.

“I look exactly like him,” she said of her dad, who was famously played by Gyton Grantley in TV drama Underbelly.

Dhakota with her mother Roberta Williams.

Carl and Dhakota.

“People say I look exactly like my dad with a wig on. I get it all of the time. It is funny; it makes me happy. Still to this day, even mentioning him makes me upset. With my 21st approaching, it is such a big milestone for my family and me so for him not to be here and to celebrate is a huge thing. I would have loved for him to see me now and everything I am doing with my life because I know he would be so proud.”

Dhakota was just 10 when her father was murdered at Victoria’s Barwon Prison in April 2010 while serving life sentences for the murders of Jason and Lewis Moran and Mark Mallia.

“For me going to visit him, I couldn’t pick any difference between him and what society classes as a ‘normal’ dad. We would talk about school, being nice to my mum, brushing my teeth every day, literally the most normal things you can think of.”

A permanent shrine to her father hangs in the hallway – gold angel wings with a photo of Dhakota at the age of three in her fathers arms. He is always with her, she said.

Dhakota in front of the tribute to her father. Picture: Alex Coppel.

“I think it shapes us into the family we are, everything that has happened, good and bad, I will take it. I accept it … I don’t mind. It has been so long now so I block out the nasty things people say, I don’t give it any energy.”

Social media is a big part of Dhakota’s life. She has nearly 40,000 followers on Instagram and recently teased fans with suggestions she may start an OnlyFans account.

“Showing your body off, which I often do, I don’t think that is a bad thing,” she said. “Women are beautiful. Some people message and say nasty things, I’ve been called fat so many times but I don’t care, I am comfortable with myself. At the start I would be so upset and cry for days, now you can call me whatever you want because I am comfortable and confident in my own skin.”

Asked where she draws her confidence from, Dhakota’s mother yells out from the kitchen: “her dad, Carl instilled her with confidence”.

Dhakota responded: “My dad was very confident. He instilled that confidence in me since I was little and my mum has always made sure I was really confident in myself. I ignore the hate.”