The missed opportunities to save Sara

SOCIAL workers left woman-hating brute Urfan Sharif free to kill his terrified daughter Sara despite a shocking history of domestic violence.

- Paul Jeeves

Sharif beat and abused his partners and even attacked a month-old baby, yet Sara and her siblings were left at his mercy as authorities failed to intervene despite red-flag warnings.

Police, social services and Sara's school missed 15 opportunities to save the vulnerable pupil before she was battered to death with a metal pole as she lay dying in the arms of evil stepmother Beinash Batool on August 8 last year.

An independent safeguarding review has been ordered which will examine the circumstances in which a family court judge decided to place the victim in the custody of her cruel father and stepmother.

Police repeatedly arrested him for alleged abuse of women and children, including assaulting the baby, while two children suffered bruises, slaps, bites and burns to their legs and face, including marks made with an iron.

Years before Sara's murder, Sharif, 41, was accused of choking one woman and tightening a belt around her neck during a fit of rage.

The taxi driver threatened another victim with a knife but evaded prosecution for more than a decade by hoodwinking the authorities into believing his version of events.

Controlling

Even when Sara was taken out of school after teachers raised concerns, social services failed to remove the children to safety.

Instead they closed an investigation into the family less than a week after her teachers spotted bruises and referred her to the council.