Sara Sharif trial latest: Father shakes head as he admits taping up daughter then beating her with metal pole
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.
Watch: Police bodycam footage from night Sara Sharif’s body was discovered
Sara Sharif’s stepmother was victim of ‘honour-based abuse’, court told
Sara Sharif’s father was attracted to her stepmother because she was a vulnerable young victim of “honour-based abuse”, a court has heard.
Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial for Sara’s murder, along with his wife Beinash Batool, 30, and brother Faisal Malik, 29.
On Tuesday, Batool’s lawyer rejected Sharif’s claim that she was violent towards Sara, saying he was the one who was controlling, abusive and manipulative.
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Sara Sharif’s stepmother was victim of ‘honour-based abuse’, court told
Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial for Sara’s murder, along with his wife Beinash Batool, 30, and brother Faisal Malik, 29.
Sharif tells jurors: ‘I didn’t want to kill her’
After his dramatic admission on Wednesday, Sharif asked for the murder charge against him to be put to him again but after a lunchbreak appeared to change his mind and insisted he was not guilty.
He told jurors: “I did not want to hurt her. I didn’t want to harm her.”
Ms Carberry responded: “But you did harm her. What did you intend when you took a cricket bat to a 10-year-old girl?”
The defendant said: “I did wrong. I didn’t think anything.”
Ms Carberry asked: “Do you accept that you killed her?”
Sharif said: “She died because of me. I didn’t want to kill her.”
In pictures: The family home where Sara Sharif was killed
Recap: What happened to Sara Sharif?
Sara was found dead in a bunkbed at the family home in Woking, Surrey, last August 10, the day after her father, stepmother and uncle fled to Pakistan.
Urfan Sharif had phoned police on arrival at Islamabad and admitted he had beaten Sara “too much”, having left a written confession on a pillow beside her body.
A post-mortem examination found she had suffered dozens of injuries including at least 25 broken bones, human bite marks, and burns on her bottom and feet.
The defendants were arrested on a plane at Gatwick Airport when they returned to the UK last September 13.
Watch: Video captures moment Sara Sharif’s family detained by police on plane
Urfan Sharif admits to brutally beating daughter – even whacking her with metal pole as she lay dying
Sara Sharif’s father has admitted to brutally beating the 10-year-old – and even whacking her with a metal pole as she lay dying.
As the schoolgirl lay collapsed and dying in her stepmother Beinash Batool’s lap last 8 August, Urfan Sharif continued the years-long campaign of abuse, jurors were told.
That day, Sharif admitted he armed himself with a pole after being called home by Batool.
Defence barrister Caroline Carberry KC, for Batool, said: “When you went into the room it was clear Sara needed medical help.
“You said to Beinash that Sara was just pretending that she was just acting up. And you took the metal pole that you had taken upstairs and you gave her a couple of whacks with it on her abdomen, while she was lying there very unwell.”
Sharif agreed and wept in the witness box.
Sharif admits tying his daughter with tape before beating her
Urfan Sharif occasionally bound his daughter with tape before beating her with a pole or cricket bat in the weeks leading up to her death in August 2023, the Old Bailey heard.
It was put to him that he bound Sara with tape, and he responded “yes ma’am”.
Asked if he had used the brown packing tape that had been ordered from the family’s Amazon account that July, he said “yes ma’am”.
Caroline Carberry KC, for Beinash Batool, asked Sharif if he had forced Sara to do squats while her ankles and wrists were bound with tape, to which he said “no ma’am. No ma’am, that’s not right”.
Sharif later added “I did beat her with a pole, but no sit-ups and squats”.
He denied binding Sara in order to stop her from running away or try to defend herself.