Father, stepmother of Sara Sharif convicted of murder as her uncle Faisal Malik found guilty of allowing her death
LONDON
Three members of British-Pakistani Sara Sharif’s family have been found guilty over the 10-year-old’s death after years of horrific abuse.
Her father Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, were found guilty of her murder and her uncle Faisal Malik, 29, was convicted of causing or allowing her death following a trial at the Old Bailey.
Justice Cavanagh 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 Urfan was awarded custody, despite accusations of abuse against him, jurors heard.
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said Urfan had gone on to create a “culture of violent discipline”, where assaults on Sara had “become completely routine, completely normalised”.
He alleged Urfan had meant to cause her serious harm and the other two defendants took part in the abuse, encouraged or helped him.
The defendants had fled to Pakistan after Sara died at the family home in Woking, Surrey, on August 8 2023.
Urfan called the 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 Urfan 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 Urfan 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 Urfan home and calling her family 30 times.
Urfan’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, Urfan 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 her husband’s 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.
