'Heartbreaking' Unspeakable abuse meted out to child laid bare in court

At first glance, a home video that showed Sara Sharif singing in front of the TV could have been filmed in any happy household.

- Emine Sinmaz

But on closer inspection it was clear that a small chunk of the little girl's finger was missing and there was a deep scratch to her nose.

Unseen by the lens were the scores of devastating injuries inflicted on Sara during a years-long campaign of abuse by her father, Urfan Sharif, and stepmother, Beinash Batool.

"It is heartbreaking to watch," the prosecutor, William Emlyn Jones KC, told jurors at the Old Bailey after they had been shown the footage.

"Beaten black and blue under those clothes, with open burn wounds on her buttocks and ankles, she was still doing her best to have fun, still doing her best to be a child. Moving a little awkwardly, looking rather drawn and hollow-cheeked, but alive at that time, just for a little longer."

Sara died two days later. The full extent of her injuries was not discovered until she was found neatly tucked into a bunk bed at her family home in Woking, Surrey, on 10 August 2023.

A postmortem found she had 71 external injuries, including bruises, burns, and human bite marks. She also had at least 25 fractures, including to the hyoid bone in her neck and 11 to her spine from being beaten with a cricket bat, metal pole and mobile phone.

Sharif, 43, and Batool, 30, were found guilty of murder yesterday after a seven-week trial that laid bare the brutal violence he meted out on his daughter. Sharif's brother Faisal Malik, 29, was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child.

Sara was born on 11 January 2013 and immediately made subject to a child protection plan because of existing concerns about her parents. She was briefly placed into foster care in 2014 and was later in a refuge after her biological mother, Olga Domin, accused Sharif of domestic abuse. Sara returned to live with her father after a family court ruling in October 2019.