Council staff visited wrong house one day before Sara Sharif's death, review finds

Services in Surrey failed to identify that 10-year-old Sara Sharif was at risk of abuse, did not question unexplained bruising and staff members visited the wrong address the day before her murder, a safeguarding review has found.

- Jessica Murray Social affairs correspondent

Sara was killed by her father, Urfan Sharif, and her stepmother, Beinash Batool, in August 2023 after years of escalating brutality that left her with bruises, burns, human bite marks and at least 25 fractures. She was found dead in a bunk bed at the family home after her father fled to Pakistan, leaving a note saying he had “lost it”.

A child safeguarding practice review, commissioned after Sara's murder, revealed that on 7 August, the day before Sara was killed, the council's home education team had attempted to carry out a home visit but went to the family's old address.

The mistake was spotted when staff returned to the office, but a rescheduled visit was not due to take place until September.

The review concluded that multiple agencies “at many points of her life” had failed to grasp the full scale of danger she was in and it urged services to “maintain the capacity to ‘think the unthinkable”.

Sharif and Batool were jailed for life, with Sharif receiving a minimum term of 40 years and Batool a minimum of 33 years. Sara's uncle, Faisal Malik, who was living in the house at the time, was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child and sentenced to 16 years in jail.

The review found the “seriousness and significance of [Sara's] father as a serial perpetrator of domestic abuse was overlooked, not acted on and underestimated by almost all professionals” involved in her case.