Father, stepmother of Sara Sharif convicted of murder as her uncle Faisal Malik found guilty of allowing her death
\n LONDON
\nThree members of British-Pakistani Sara Sharif\u2019s family have been found guilty over the 10-year-old\u2019s death after years of horrific abuse.
\nHer 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.
\nJustice Cavanagh adjourned sentencing until next Tuesday, telling jurors the case had been \u201cextremely stressful and traumatic\u201d.
\nSara was beaten to death four years after taxi driver Urfan was awarded custody, despite accusations of abuse against him, jurors heard.
\nProsecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said Urfan had gone on to create a \u201cculture of violent discipline\u201d, where assaults on Sara had \u201cbecome completely routine, completely normalised\u201d.
\nHe alleged Urfan had meant to cause her serious harm and the other two defendants took part in the abuse, encouraged or helped him.
\nThe defendants had fled to Pakistan after Sara died at the family home in Woking, Surrey, on August 8 2023.
\nUrfan called the police when he arrived in Islamabad and confessed he had beaten her up \u201ctoo much\u201d.
\nOfficers went to his former home and found Sara\u2019s broken and battered body in a bunk bed, with a confession note from Urfan on the pillow.
\nSara had suffered more than 25 broken bones, from being hit repeatedly with a cricket bat, metal pole and mobile phone.
\nShe 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.
\nThere 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.
\nBatool had told her sisters that Urfan would regularly \u201cbeat the crap\u201d out of Sara over the course of more than two years, but failed to report what was going on.
\nBy January 2023, Sara began wearing a hijab to cover up the bruises at school.
\nTeachers noticed marks on her face and referred her to social services in March of that year, but the case was dropped within days.
\nThe following month, Sara was taken out of school and the violence against her intensified in the weeks before her death.
\nOn August 8, Sara collapsed and Batool reacted by summoning Urfan home and calling her family 30 times.
\nUrfan\u2019s reaction to finding his daughter lying close to death in Batool\u2019s lap was to \u201cwhack\u201d her in the stomach twice with a pole for \u201cpretending\u201d, jurors heard.
\nWithin hours of Sara\u2019s death, the couple were arranging flights to Pakistan for the next day for themselves and the rest of the family.
\nThe 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.
\nGiving evidence in his trial, Urfan initially blamed Batool for the violence, claiming he was working when his daughter was abused.
\nOn the seventh day of his evidence, he dramatically changed his story and took \u201cfull responsibility\u201d for Sara\u2019s death.
\nJurors appeared tearful and shocked and Batool wailed in the dock throughout her husband\u2019s confession.
\nHe 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.
\nHe denied burning her or putting a hood over her head during \u201cpunishments\u201d for her so-called \u201cnaughty\u201d behaviour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019s family have been found guilty over the 10-year-old\u2019s death after years of horrific abuse. Her father Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, were found guilty of her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-448817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n