Father and stepmother found guilty of murder after horrific abuse of schoolgirl

Sara Sharif’s father and stepmother were found guilty yesterday of her murder after inflicting a campaign of abuse that saw the schoolgirl being hooded, restrained and beaten during her short life.

- HOLLY EVANS

Her father, Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, were found guilty of her murder. Her uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, who lived with them, was convicted of causing or allowing her death after a jury at the Old Bailey deliberated for nine hours and 46 minutes.

Sara, 10, died at the family home on 8 August last year after suffering a catalogue of 70 injuries which included a traumatic brain injury, 25 fractures, an ulcerated burn to her buttocks, human bite marks and scalding wounds.

Urfan Sharif, 42, had alerted Surrey Police to her death after calling their non-emergency 101 line in the early hours of 10 August last year after fleeing to Pakistan with Batool and Malik. He confessed that he had “beat her up too much” for being “naughty”, and that he had “legally punished” her before catching a flight to Islamabad from Heathrow airport in a bid to evade justice.

Her body was discovered in a bunk bed at the family home in Woking, Surrey, with a post-mortem examination concluding that she had suffered severe punishment in the months before her death.

After six days of cross-examination at the Old Bailey, which saw Sharif repeatedly assert that it was his younger wife Batool, who had been abusing Sara while he was at work, he dramatically took full responsibility and told jurors he had inflicted violence upon the young girl. He admitted throttling her with his bare hands and battering her with a cricket bat, metal pole and mobile phone, even whacking her in the stomach as she lay dying.

At times he became emotional as he told the jurors, many of whom were sat open-mouthed: “She died because of me. I didn’t want to kill her.” Branded a coward by the prosecutor, he accepted that he had restrained his young daughter, and had beaten her after becoming angry when she vomited or soiled herself.