Sara Sharif's father's 40-year jail term upheld despite appeal as court rules murder sentence 'not unduly lenient'
13 March 2025, 15:07
The Court of Appeal has ruled that the father of Sara Sharif should not have his 40-year murder sentence increased.
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Urfan Sharif and Beinash Batool were jailed for life with minimum terms of 40 years and 33 years respectively in December last year after being found guilty of the 10-year-old's murder.
Sara's uncle, Faisal Malik, was found guilty of causing or allowing her death and jailed for 16 years.
In a televised sentencing at the Old Bailey in December, Mr Justice Cavanagh said Sara's death "was the culmination of years of neglect, frequent assaults and what can only be described as torture", mainly at the hands of Sharif.
All three brought bids to challenge their sentences at the Court of Appeal, while the Solicitor General asked judges to increase Sharif's sentence under the unduly lenient sentencing scheme.
But the judges ruled that Sharif's sentence was not unduly lenient and that his term should stand as it is.
At a hearing on Thursday, Tom Little KC, for the Solicitor General, said Sara's murder was a rare case of such "exceptionally high seriousness" that it warranted a whole life order for Sharif.
"This was a truly awful case of a murder of a child," he told the court, adding that a whole life order was "the only appropriate sentence".
He said in written submissions: "It is submitted that it is difficult to conceive of a murder being perpetrated on a young girl by her own father that could be any more serious than this.
"Whilst that is not the test it is illustrative of the need to consider the individual facts of the case."
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Sara was found dead in a bunkbed at the family home in Woking, Surrey, in August 2023.
She had suffered 71 recent injuries at the time of her death, including 25 broken bones, iron burns on her bottom, scalding marks to her feet, and human bites, appeal judges were told.
Mr Little continued: "The violence meted out to Sara was premeditated and repeated again and again even if the murder itself was not."
The barrister told the court in London that Sara was caused "stress, pain and trauma" and began to vomit food or soil herself as a response to the abuse.
Mr Little added: "It is submitted that the level of violence inflicted upon Sara, namely serious violence which was repeated over years, was in itself certainly substantially premeditated, and is not in culpability terms any less serious than a premeditated and planned murder of a child."
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Naeem Mian KC, for Sharif, said that a whole life order would not be the appropriate sentence in this case.
He said: "We say, without hesitation, this is not one of those exceptional cases."
The barrister said: "We can all agree that this was a tragic case. Regrettably, it is the case that cases of this nature are not unique."
Caroline Carberry KC, for Sara's stepmother Batool, said her sentence was too long and did not properly reflect her secondary role.
The barrister also said Batool had significant mitigation.
"Nothing we say today on behalf of Beinash Batool detracts from the horror of Sara's treatment," she told the court.
The hearing before the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Mr Justice Soole and Mr Justice Goose is due to conclude on Thursday afternoon.
