Slain Sydney mother Lametta Fadlallah laid to rest, remembered as having ‘great gold heart’

It may not have been an underworld funeral but with a chopper circling, the Raptor Squad on every corner and mourners glaring at reporters, it could have passed for one.

It may not have been an underworld funeral but with a PolAir chopper circling overhead, the anti-gang Raptor Squad on every corner and a procession of Dolce & Gabbana-clad mourners glaring at reporters, it could have passed for one.

“You’re a dog,” one generously neck-tattooed mourner snarled at The Australian’s photographer, as murdered mother of two Lametta Fadlallah was farewelled at St Charbel’s Monastery at Punchbowl in Sydney’s southwest on Monday.

Gunned down in a hail of bullets while sitting in a car outside her home nine days ago, Fadlallah was said by police to have gangland connections but by her family to be an innocent victim.

Either way, police were taking no chances that things might get out of hand. About a dozen officers from the Raptor Squad were joined by highway patrol and general duties officers.

Adel Dayoub, boyfriend of Lametta Fadlallah, at the funeral. Picture John Grainger

If there was talk of revenge, it didn’t spill over into St Charbel’s, where there was no mention of the murder or the motive behind the execution-style killing.

“Lametta lived for her children. Even when times were tough, she spared no expense for her sons,” mourners heard. Fadlallah’s 16-year-old son, Ghazi, sat beside the white casket topped with a heavy bouquet of flowers. Her eldest son, Abraham Derbas, stayed outside because of his ­religious beliefs.

Also attending was Fadlallah’s boyfriend, Adel Dayoub, the man she was on her way to meet on the evening she died.

Pallbearers with the coffin after the funeral. Picture: NCA NewsWire

The grieving owner of a Riverwood construction company had not been seen in public since his girlfriend of 12 months was killed.

The 48-year-old mother of two had been on her way to dinner at the Strathfield South restaurant run by Mr Dayoub’s two sons when she was shot dead alongside her friend, hairdresser Amy Hazouri.

The service, which was mostly conducted in Arabic, went for just over an hour.

Afterwards, her family and friends released white balloons into the sky before the hearse drove off towards Rookwood cemetery followed by a stretch limousine with relatives.

“Bye Lametta, we love you,” one mourner yelled.

Family and close friends outside the church. Picture: NCA NewsWire

One close relative, who asked not to be named, told The Australian she wanted Fadlallah to be remembered as the “most loveable person in the world”.

“She was a person with a great, gold heart; no one can ever have the heart that she had. She put everyone first,” she said.

“People do mistakes in their life but she didn’t deserve to die the way she did, and she didn’t do anything wrong in my belief and she was a great woman.

“I love her to death and I will forever cherish her. She was my second mother.

“She was my second mother,” the close relative said.

“That’s all I could say.”

At the cemetery, Fadlallah is understood to have been buried alongside her father.

Police remain tight-lipped about their investigation after ­reports that hit men were paid at least $500,000 for Fadlallah’s death, her murder said to be an act of revenge after she was forced into speaking to authorities in order to protect a loved one.

Inside the service at Saint Charbel's Monastery in Punchbowl. Picture: John Grainger