Sara Sharif case
\n London
\nThe father of Sara Sharif, a 10-year-old girl who was found dead in her home in Britain, told police \u201cI beat her up too much\u201d, prosecutors said at his murder trial on Monday.
\nSara was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking, a town southwest of London, after what prosecutors say was a campaign of \u201cserious and repeated violence\u201d. Her father Urfan Sharif, 42, his wife and Sara Sharif\u2019s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and the girl\u2019s uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are on trial at London\u2019s Old Bailey court charged with her murder.
\nThe trio are alternatively charged with causing or allowing the death of a child. All three deny the charges against them and blame each other for her death, prosecutors say.
\nProsecutor Bill Emlyn Jones told jurors on the first day of the trial on Monday that Urfan Sharif called British police, having fled to Pakistan after Sara\u2019s death.
\n\u201cHe used what you may think is an odd expression,\u201d Jones said. \u201cHe said: \u2018I legally punished her and she died\u2019.\u201d
\nJones said that Urfan also told police: \u201cI beat her up. It wasn\u2019t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.\u201d
\nThe prosecutor said a note in Urfan\u2019s handwriting was also found next to his daughter\u2019s body, which read: \u201cI swear to God that my intention was not to kill her. But I lost it.\u201d
\nJones told the jury that each of Urfan, Batool and Malik \u201cplayed their part in the violence and mistreatment which resulted in Sara\u2019s death\u201d.
\nThe three defendants all deny responsibility for any of violence and abuse and each \u201cseeks to deflect the blame onto one or both of the others\u201d, Jones said.
\nUrfan blames his wife Batool, Emlyn Jones said, and his apparent confessions to the police were designed to \u201cprotect the true guilty party\u201d.
\nThe prosecutor added that Batool\u2019s case is that Urfan Sharif was a \u201cviolent disciplinarian\u201d and that she was scared of him, while Malik says he was unaware of any abuse or violence.
\nThe trial is expected to run until December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sara Sharif case London The father of Sara Sharif, a 10-year-old girl who was found dead in her home in Britain, told police \u201cI beat her up too much\u201d, prosecutors said at his murder trial on Monday. Sara was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking, a town southwest of London, after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-437298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n