Girl's stepmother was 'villain', says father, denying murder

The father of Sara Sharif denied killing his daughter as he claimed the 10-year-old's stepmother was the "true villain of the piece", a court was told yesterday.

- Emine Sinmaz

Urfan Sharif tried to save his "limp" daughter and begged for an ambulance, only to be told: "Leave it, she's dead," jurors heard.

Sharif wept as he described Sara as a "beautiful angel" and denied abusing her, saying: "I did slap her, I never beat her... I have lot of flaws, I'm not even an average father, I never beat her any of the time. Never."

Giving evidence at the Old Bailey yesterday, he accused his wife, Beinash Batool, of attacking him with a wooden lemon squeezer and a broom, and hitting him in the back of the head until he had lost consciousness.

Sharif, 42, Batool, 30, and Sara's paternal uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are on trial accused of carrying out a violent "campaign of abuse" before the schoolgirl was found dead in a bunk bed at the family home in Surrey on 10 August last year.

The defendants allegedly killed Sara on 8 August before fleeing to Pakistan, from where Sharif called police to say he had "beat her up too much". He had left a handwritten "confession" near her fully clothed body saying: "I swear to God that my intention was not to kill her. But I lost it."