Sara Sharif’s father admits beating daughter with pole but denies stripping and jetwashing body
Urfan Sharif, his wife and brother are accused of being “all in this together” by discarding her clothes and fleeing to Pakistan
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Sara Sharif’s father has admitted to beating his daughter with a metal pole while she lay dying, but denied jetwashing her body in their garden before fleeing to Pakistan.
Jurors at the Old Bailey heard that the 10-year-old was wearing clean clothes when she was discovered dead in a bunkbed in the family home in Woking, Surrey, on 10 August last year.
However, her soiled leggings and nappy were discovered outside near an outbuilding and a jetwash, while packaging tape and hoods were discovered in the bin.
Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, his wife Beinash Batool, 30, and brother Faisal Malik, 29, are accused of murdering the schoolgirl after a years-long “campaign of abuse”, which saw her suffer traumatic injuries, burn and bite marks.
After weeks of blaming Sara’s stepmother, Sharif dramatically admitted on Wednesday to tying the girl up with the tape and hitting her with a cricket bat, metal pole and mobile phone, even whacking her in the stomach as she lay dying in Batool’s lap.
On Friday, prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC suggested all three defendants were involved, despite Sharif’s claim that he took “full responsibility”.
Alluding to their actions in the immediate aftermath of her death on 8 August, he recalled Batool’s “calm” phone call to the travel agents to book flights to Pakistan, while Malik was also present in the semi-detached council house at the time.
The three travelled to Islamabad the following day, with Sharif calling Surrey Police through their non-emergency line to confess to killing his daughter, saying he had beaten her “too much” after she was “naughty”.
Mr Emlyn Jones also suggested the evidence showed that after she was killed, she was then taken into the garden, stripped of her dirty leggings and nappy and cleaned.
“There was a jetwash out in the garden with her dirty clothes and the rest of the rubbish. Those are the leggings Sara died in, entwined with a filthy nappy, bundled up with two towels, soaking wet.”
Sharif denied that his brother had washed Sara in the garden, while the prosecutor pointed to the discovery of Malik’s McDonalds uniform, which had been discarded in the bin underneath the homemade hoods.
It was also suggested that Sara had been placed in nappies as a “solution to maintaining restraint” once her hands and feet had been tied together by packaging tape. While being cross-examined, Sharif admitted that he had bound his young daughter before beating her with a metal pole.
However, he has denied biting her on the arm and thigh, burning her with a domestic iron and boiling water and putting her head in a hood as he meted out punishments for “naughty” behaviour.
Asked who was responsible, he repeatedly denied knowing who had inflicted these injuries upon Sara.
Jurors heard that upon fleeing to Pakistan, Sharif had failed to bring his mobile phone when returning to the UK a month later, which saw the three defendants arrested upon arrival at Gatwick Airport.
One of the few messages available from Sharif to his wife reads: “Sara cut my laces. You and Sara have made my life hell. Once she is at home, sort her out before I do.”
Accusing him of manipulating the evidence, Mr Emlyn-Jones said: “You were discussing it in those messages but when you went to Pakistan you made sure those phones didn’t come and we are denied the treasure trove of what those messages would reveal to us.
“It is another way in which you have manipulated the case to try and make it go to your advantage, get rid of the evidence of those phones, the photos and videos.”
He added: “When you left for Pakistan you had no plan to come back. Your plan was to go away so you could get away with what you had done.”
Sharif insisted that he did come back to the UK, but the prosecutor asserted that was only because of pressure exerted on the family in Pakistan.
When being cross-examined for the second time by his own lawyer Naeem Mian KC, Sharif again admitted to beating his daughter and using a metal pole to inflict injuries.
Asked why he had suddenly diverted his evidence, after spending days claiming Batool was behind the injuries, he responded: “She was my daughter. I’ve been nasty, I’ve been mean with her. I couldn’t care for her, I didn’t do what a father should have done and I’ll take responsibility for everything.”
Sharif, Batool and Malik, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, Surrey, deny murder and causing or allowing Sara’s death. The trial continues.