Sara Sharif trial latest: Father admits lying to blame wife for beating daughter before brutal death
Urfan Sharif had earlier in the trial at the Old Bailey accused his wife, Beinash Batool, of tying up and beating his daughter
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Sara Sharif’s father has told jurors he lied to them in a bid to blame his wife for his daughter’s death.
Under questioning at the Old Bailey, Urfan Sharif said accusations he had made against Beinash Batool of tying up and beating his daughter were not true.
Asked if he had lied and tried to implicate someone else, the taxi driver replied: “Yes.”
On Wednesday, he told jurors he “takes full responsibility” for killing the 10-year-old after brutally beating her, as he stands trial for her murder.
He confessed to hitting the schoolgirl with a cricket bat as she was bound with packaging tape as well as to repeatedly throttling her with his bare hand – and to hitting her with a metal pole as she lay dying.
He continues to deny her murder, telling the court: “She died because of me. I didn’t want to kill her.”
During the early hours of 10 August last year, Sharif had called Surrey Police after fleeing to Pakistan to say he had beaten his daughter “too much” for being “naughty” and that she had died.
Sharif, Batool, and Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, all formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, Surrey, deny murder and causing or allowing the 10-year-old’s death and the trial continues.
In pictures: Who was Sara Sharif?
Sara’s injuries were similar to those suffered by falling 20ft from a roof
The court heard Sara suffered a number of spine fractures from the beatings, similar to those sustained when a child falls 20ft from a roof.
Mr Emlyn Jones pressed: “You did that to Sara by hitting her with the force as if she had fallen from a second storey roof again and again and again.
“Last time to do the decent thing: When you beat Sara so hard with a cricket bat that you broke her spine did you intend to cause her at least a serious injury.”
Sharif replied: “No.”
Mr Emlyn Jones asserted: “You are a coward because you will not admit what you have done.”
“You are a coward, aren’t you, because it’s a coward who bullies and beats a child to make himself feel in control and it’s a coward who sits there and tries to blame other people for it.
Watch: Sara Sharif’s family arriving at Heathrow Airport hours before girl’s body found
‘How low will you stoop?’, Sharif asked by prosecutor
In another tense moment of cross-examination, Sharif suggested it “kids” who had inflicted a large burn across Sara’s buttocks, which had been caused by a domestic iron.
“To do that to Sara to press and hold an iron across both of her buttocks, would it take two people to do that?,” prosecutor Wiliam Emlyn-Jones KC said.
“Would someone have to hold her down, would someone have to restrain her? There’s no sign of her wriggling around while being branded by an iron. So who was it?”.
“It must have been kids,” Sharif responded.
“How low will you stoop? An injury that will have caused her dreadful lasting pain that was still unhealed, open and gaping when she died. An injury said to have been at least two weeks old, at least two to six weeks or more, made worse by the fact she was being made to wear a dirty nappy contaminated with urine and faeces,” Mr Emlyn-Jones said.
Prosecutor insists all defendants must have known about the abuse
On Thursday, prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC insisted all the defendants must have known what was going on in the house.
He said Batool knew Sharif would deliver a beating on the many occasions she called him home because Sara had been “sick” or “naughty” but she did it anyway.
“She is setting her up for a beating. She’s making the call that makes the beating happen, she is calling it on and she is responsible for that, isn’t she?” he said.
Sharif denied it.
Thursday recap: Urfan Sharif admits blaming his wife for Sara’s death
Here are the key points from Urfan Sharif’s questioning in the dock on Thursday:
- Sharif admitted he had lied during earlier evidence, saying that “everything” that he said was wrong. He said: “I did lie. You can’t imagine my pain, I’m a bad dad, I’m a very bad dad but I’m still a father.”
- Sharif admitted trying to blame Beinash Batool, his wife and Sara’s stepmother, for Sara’s death. He accused her of tying up and beating his daughter. He was asked whether he “lied and then tried to implicate someone else,” to which he confirmed: “Yes sir.”
- Repeated accusations of domestic abuse were no more than a coincidence, Sharif insisted. He has been accused of abusive and controlling behaviour in three previous relationships.
- Sharif maintained that he had only used a cricket bat to hit Sara once, and that he had not hit her in the head. When asked to explain how Sara died, he said: “I can’t explain.”
- Sharif reiterated that he “takes responsibility” for Sara’s death. “I’ve been selfish blaming other people for something they didn’t do,” he said.
- Sharif told the court he had been “nasty” and “mean” with his daughter.
In pictures: Inside the home where Sara Sharif’s body was found
Police bodycam footage from night Sara Sharif's body was discovered
Recap: Sara Sharif had suffered multiple fractures across 25 locations on her body, court told
Sara Sharif suffered 25 unexplained fractures in multiple locations across her body, as well as an “extremely rare” neck injury that a radiologist had never seen before in a child, a court has heard.
A skeletal scan had revealed ten fractures to her spine, as well as ones to her right clavicle, left and right scapular, to her spine and ribs, elbow and hands.
Professor Owen Arthurs, who conducted an examination of the 10-year-old’s body, concluded that these had been most likely caused by “multiple episodes of blunt force trauma inflicted over several weeks”.
Read the full report:
Sara Sharif suffered multiple fractures across 25 locations on her body, court told
A radiologist told jurors that he had ‘never seen’ a hyoid bone fracture in a child before
Prosecution begins to examination of Sara’s father
Prosecutor William Emlyn-Jones KC has begun to question Sara Sharif’s father on Thursday afternoon.
In his final stage of cross-examination by his brother’s lawyer Michael Ivers KC, he insisted he had returned back to the UK in September 2023 for his daughter.
He agreed that he had not carried out his abuse in front of his brother, nor had they informed his parents in Pakistan of Sara’s abuse, as this would have “gone down like a lead balloon”.