Father and stepmother guilty of murdering Sara Sharif, 10, who was burned and beaten in two years of horrific abuse
11 December 2024, 13:07 | Updated: 11 December 2024, 14:37
The father and stepmother of Sara Sharif have been found guilty of her murder.
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Urfan Sharif, 43 and Beinash Batool, 30, have been found guilty of the murder of 10-year-old Sara.
Her uncle Faisal Malik was found not guilty of murder but guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child.
Sara died on 8 August 2023 at her home in Woking, Surrey. She was found with dozens of injuries.
The Old Bailey heard how Sara had been hooded, burned and beaten during more than two years of abuse.
The judge adjourned sentencing until next Tuesday, telling jurors the case had been "extremely stressful and traumatic".
Sara was beaten to death four years after taxi driver Sharif was awarded custody, despite accusations of abuse against him, jurors heard.
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said Sharif had gone on to create a "culture of violent discipline", where assaults on Sara had "become completely routine, completely normalised".
He alleged Sharif had meant to cause her serious harm and the other two defendants took part in the abuse, encouraged or helped him.
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The convictions raise questions about the past involvement of the family court and social services in Sara's case.
The defendants had fled to Pakistan after Sara died at the family home in Woking, Surrey, on August 8 2023.
Sharif called police when he arrived in Islamabad and confessed he had beaten her up "too much".
Officers went to his former home and found Sara's broken and battered body in a bunk bed, with a confession note from Sharif on the pillow.
Sara had suffered more than 25 broken bones, from being hit repeatedly with a cricket bat, metal pole and mobile phone.
She had a broken hyoid bone in her neck from being throttled, iron burns on her buttocks, boiling water burns on her feet, and human bite marks on her arm and thigh.
There was also evidence she had been bound with packaging tape and hooded during the assaults, which would have left her in excruciating pain, jurors heard.
Batool had told her sisters that Sharif would regularly "beat the crap" out of Sara over the course of more than two years, but failed to report what was going on.
By January 2023, Sara began wearing a hijab to cover up the bruises at school.
Teachers noticed marks on her face and referred her to social services in March of that year, but the case was dropped within days.
The following month, Sara was taken out of school and the violence against her intensified in the weeks before her death.
On August 8, Sara collapsed and Batool reacted by summoning Sharif home and calling her family 30 times.
Sharif's reaction to finding his daughter lying close to death in Batool's lap was to "whack" her in the stomach twice with a pole for "pretending", jurors heard.
Within hours of Sara's death, the couple were arranging flights to Pakistan for the next day for themselves and the rest of the family.
The defendants returned to the UK on September 13 2023, leaving behind other children who had travelled with them, and were detained within minutes of a flight touching down at Gatwick airport.
Giving evidence in his trial, Sharif initially blamed Batool for the violence, claiming he was working when his daughter was abused.
On the seventh day of his evidence, he dramatically changed his story and took "full responsibility" for Sara's death.
Jurors appeared tearful and shocked and Batool wailed in the dock throughout his confession.
He admitted hitting Sara repeatedly with a cricket bat and pole, strangling her with his bare hands, and battering her over the head with a mobile phone.
He denied burning her or putting a hood over her head during "punishments" for her so-called "naughty" behaviour.
Later, he backtracked on his confession and claimed he did not mean to seriously harm Sara, despite having earlier indicated he wanted to change his plea.
Under cross-examination, it was alleged two other children he was connected with had been burned and bitten and he was the "common denominator".
Although the bites on Sara's body did not match Sharif's teeth it was alleged he could have encouraged Batool, who alone refused to give a set of her tooth impressions.
It was alleged that he had been controlling and manipulative towards Batool, as well as Sara's mother Olga and two Polish ex-girlfriends.
Batool and university student Malik refused to give evidence but denied involvement.
It was claimed on Batool's behalf that Sharif was the "sole perpetrator" of the violence against his "spirited, bold and fierce" daughter.
Caroline Carberry KC said: "No doubt that spirit, that boldness from his daughter, was what Urfan Sharif tried to silence with his beating, control, cruel punishment and degrading treatment of her.
"Terrorising not just Sara but everyone else who lived under the roof with him."
After the verdicts, Chief Superintendent Mark Chapman told the PA news agency: "Surrey Police's thoughts continue to be with Sara's mother and her siblings and anyone who knew Sara in her short life.
"Through the course of this prosecution members of the public will have heard or read horrific detail around the injuries Sara sustained or the neglect that was administered to her. We would like to reach out to those people and say our thought are with them also."
He said the circumstances of the case were "unusual" as he paid tribute to the call handler who spoke to Sharif when he called to report his daughter's death from Pakistan.
He said: "Surrey Police worked tirelessly on this case in the early days with our partner agencies in this country and overseas.
"It is a hugely complex legal and procedural framework that we needed to navigate in terms of seeking individuals that were wanted for serious matters in this country but were overseas in Pakistan.
"That work was ongoing for many days and weeks following the discovery of Sara's body. I would like to thank those agencies for their continued support in this investigation."
