Sara Sharif trial latest: Father says he beat daughter with cricket bat as jury told violence was ‘normalised’
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 inflicted “inhuman” violence upon his daughter, which was “completely normalised” in the family household, jurors have heard.
In a dramatic admission in the witness stand, Urfan Sharif told jurors he lied to them in a bid to blame his wife for the schoolgirl’s death.
Under questioning at the Old Bailey, 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.”
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.
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”.
Pictured: Moment Urfan Sharif and Beinash Batool were arrested in Gatwick Airport
‘I take responsibility for it,’ says Sharif
Urfan Sharif once again admitted responsibility for Sara Sharif’s death on Thursday, after giving conflicting versions of events on both Wednesday and Thursday.
Under cross examination, he said that he had been aware of Sara’s injuries and the full extent of them once he was arrested and interviewed by the police.
‘I can’t explain’ how Sara died, says Urfan Sharif
Giving a contrasting version from Wednesday’s admissions, Sharif maintained that he had only used the cricket bat once on his daughter and had not hit her on the head.
When repeatedly asked to explain how Sara had died in court earlier today, Sharif responded: “I can’t explain.”
Speaking of his family’s reaction in Pakistan, Mr Ivers KC said: “It will have come as a body blow to all of them when they read it yesterday because you’ve lied to everyone haven’t you?”
Sharif nodded and confirmed in response.
“You’re busy pointing the blame at everyone else but yourself, is that fair?”, to which Sharif said: “Yes sir.”
He also claimed that on the day of her death, he had seen Sara sitting watching TV while eating snacks, and denied that he had been forced to return from Pakistan due to “pressure” placed upon his family.
ICYMI: Faisal Malik had spent increasing time away due to family’s cramped living conditions
Speaking of his brother’s presence in the household, Sharif confirmed that Faisal Malik spent large portions of his spare time out of the cramped flat in West Byfleet.
Neighbours had previously given evidence that they heard “screaming and crying” as well as the rattling of doors while the family were living at the small maisonette.
As a result of Malik moving to the UK to study in Portsmouth in December 2022 and staying with his older brother, Batool was required to “cover up” while Malik had to maintain his distance.
The court heard that Malik had then moved with the couple in April 2023 to their council home in Woking, but had to remain “cautious” given that he legally should not have been residing at the property.
Report: Sara Sharif’s father ‘can’t explain’ similar burns and bites on two children
Sara Sharif’s father had no answer as to how his daughter and another child suffered similar domestic iron burns and human bites, despite being the “common denominator”.
For more than a week in the witness box, taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, had denied murdering his 10-year-old daughter following a years-long campaign of abuse.
Sara was found dead at the family home in Woking, Surrey, last August 10, after Sharif, his wife Beinash Batool, 30, and brother Faisal Malik, 29, fled to Pakistan.
Read the full report:
Sara Sharif’s father ‘can’t explain’ similar burns and bites on two children
Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, is accused of murdering his 10-year-old daughter in August last year.
I wasn’t raised like this, Sharif says
Sharif, who was raised in Pakistan, admitted that his parents had not brought up him up in a particularly disciplinarian household.
His ideas of discipline which he used against Sara had “come from him”.
“Did you have an idea about how children should be punished? Is that the truth about all of this?”, Mr Ivers KC asked.
“There’s certain things I can’t explain, I have no words,” Sharif said.
Repeated accusations of domestic abuse were a ‘coincidence’, Sharif says
Urfan Sharif has been accused of multiple former partners of domestic violence.
He has repeatedly denied being the “common denominator”, after it emerged that three of his previous girlfriends, who were all Polish, had accused him of controlling behaviour, which included locking them inside and taking their passports.
This was a “coincidence”, Sharif said. He denied that he chose partners based on their vulnerability and his ability to control them.
