Sara Sharif plays guitar and sings in heartbreaking unseen home video as father and step mum convicted of her murder
11 December 2024, 14:33 | Updated: 11 December 2024, 14:35
Sara Sharif was filmed playing guitar and singing in a heartbreaking home video released after her father and stepmother were 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 in their Surrey home.
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.
In the devastating home video, young Sara smiles as she strums on a guitar and sings along.
Sara Sherif seen playing instrument in released footage
But unseen are the dozens of injuries Sara had suffered at the hands of her father and stepmother, including burns, bruises and broken bones.
“It is heartbreaking to watch,” prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC, told jurors at the Old Bailey upon showing the video.
“Beaten black and blue under those clothes, with open burn wounds on her buttocks and ankles, she was still doing her best to have fun, still doing her best to be a child. Moving a little awkwardly, looking rather drawn and hollow-cheeked, but alive at that time, just for a little longer.”
Sara died two days after the video was taken.
Following today’s decision, police said Sara’s “bravery” and “spirit” shone through despite the campaign of abuse she faced at the hands of her family.
Det Ch Insp Craig Emmerson from Surrey Police said Sara's life "was brought to an end as a result of the brutal abuse and unspeakable violence.
"This case has shocked and horrified not only those who knew and loved her but people across the country and around the world,” he added.
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.
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."
The judge adjourned sentencing until next Tuesday, telling jurors the case had been "extremely stressful and traumatic".
