Father admitted killing daughter in police call, court hears

The father of 10-year-old Sara Sharif called police from Pakistan and admitted he killed her at her Surrey home, a court heard.

Sara’s father Urfan, 42, her stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and her uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are accused of murdering the girl, who was found dead at her home in Woking in August last year.

All three have pleaded not guilty.

On Monday at the Old Bailey, prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC told the court Sara had been the victim of serious violent assaults for “weeks and weeks, at least”.

He said Sara had dozens of separate injuries, externally and internally, extensive bruising, burns and broken bones, old and new.

Mr Sharif called Surrey Police from Pakistan where the family had fled before her body was found and told the operator that he killed his daughter.

The prosecutor said that in the call, which lasted eight minutes and 34 seconds, Mr Sharif told the operator that he “legally punished her” and she died.

Later in the call to police, Sara’s father is said to have told the operator that Sara had been naughty and that he then beat her up, jurors heard.

“It wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much”, the prosecutor said Mr Sharif went on to tell the operator.

However, Mr Jones KC added: “Sara had not just been beaten up. Her treatment, certainly in the last few weeks of her life, had been appalling and brutal.”

Jurors also heard that police found Sara’s body on a bottom bunkbed under covers as if she was asleep.

“But she was not asleep, she was dead,” Mr Jones KC told the jury.

The three defendants, who lived with Sara before her death in August last year, are also charged with causing or allowing the death of a child, which they deny.

The prosecution said it was “inconceivable” that any of the adults could have carried out the abuse “without the complicity, participation, assistance and encouragement of the others”.

“None of them ever reported Sara’s abuse to any outside agency, who could have intervened,” Mr Jones KC added.

The trial continues.