Sara Sharif’s father and stepmother facing life sentence for murder

Sara Sharif’s father and stepmother will be sentenced later for killing the 10-year-old after years of horrific abuse.

Last week, Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, were found guilty of her murder following a trial at the Old Bailey.

Her uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, who lived with them, was convicted of causing or allowing her death after a jury deliberated for nine hours and 46 minutes.

The three defendants will return to the Old Bailey on Tuesday when Mr Justice Cavanagh’s sentencing is expected to be broadcast from the court.

Sara was found dead in a bunkbed at her home in Woking, Surrey, after her father rang police from Pakistan to confess he had beaten her “too much”.

Sharif had hit her with a cricket bat and iron bar, throttled her, and thrown a mobile phone at her head.

Sara was also tied up with packaging tape and her head covered with a makeshift hood during regular bouts of punishment that would have left her in excruciating pain, jurors had heard.

Even as she lay dying in Batool’s lap last August 8, taxi driver Sharif had come home and whacked her in the stomach for “pretending”.

Batool had told her sister that Sharif would “beat the crap” out of his daughter but failed to do anything to stop it, even calling him home from work to dish out punishments, the court was told.

The abuse had become so “normalised” that university student Malik failed to act after moving in with the family in December 2022.

By January 2023, Sara began wearing a hijab to cover up the bruises at school.

Teachers had twice noticed marks on her face and referred her to social services last March, but the case was dropped within days and the following month Sara was taken out of school.

Within hours of Sara’s death, Sharif and Batool had booked flights to Pakistan for the whole family, including her siblings and half siblings.

The defendants returned to the UK on September 13 2023 – leaving the children behind – and were detained within minutes of a flight touching down at Gatwick airport.

In his trial, Sharif initially blamed Batool for the violence before dramatically accepting “full responsibility”, leaving jurors open mouthed and tearful.

He later appeared to backtrack, denying he had bitten or burned Sara or covered her head in a hood.

Jurors heard that bite marks on Sara’s arm and thigh did not match either Sharif or Malik and only Batool had refused to give impressions of her teeth.

Jurors heard that Sharif had been granted custody in 2019, despite earlier allegations of child abuse and arrests for alleged controlling behaviour towards ex-girlfriends.

In documents later released by the family court, it emerged that concerns were raised about Sara’s care within a week of her birth in 2013, with her parents known to social services as early as 2010.

Surrey County Council repeatedly raised “significant concerns” that Sara was likely to suffer physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her parents.

There were three sets of family court proceedings, but allegations that Sharif was physically abusing Sara and her siblings were never tested in court.

Sara was repeatedly returned to her parents’ care before finally being placed with her father and stepmother, four years before she was murdered.

Sir Keir Starmer described the case as “awful” and stressed the importance of safeguards for children being home-schooled.

Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said the case highlighted “profound weaknesses in our child protection system”.

Maria Neophytou, acting chief executive of the NSPCC, said it was an “absolutely shocking case” raising “crucial questions” about child protection.

Rachael Wardell, from Surrey County Council, said that until an independent safeguarding review has concluded, a “complete picture cannot be understood or commented upon”.

Sara’s mother, Olga Sharif, said in a statement: “My dear Sara, I ask God to please take care of my little girl, she was taken too soon.

“She will always be in our hearts, her laughter will bring warmth to our lives. We miss Sara very much. Love you Princess.”

Sara’s siblings and half-siblings who were taken to Pakistan following her murder remain in the city of Jhelum, with their paternal grandfather. Efforts to return them to the UK are still ongoing.