The father of Sara Sharif has told a court he caught his “evil” wife red-handed after she tied his “terrified” daughter’s hands behind her back with packing tape just weeks before Sara was killed.
Urfan Sharif said he “shouted and screamed” when he came home from work early to find Sara, 10, bound by the living room radiator.
He said his wife, Beinash Batool, told him: “She’s been naughty so I’ve tied her hands so she doesn’t hurt herself or someone else.”
Sharif denied beating and burning Sara and suggested Batool was responsible for biting his daughter “like an animal”.
Sharif, 42, Batool, 30, and Sara’s paternal uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are on trial at the Old Bailey accused of carrying out a violent “campaign of abuse” before the schoolgirl was found dead in a bunk bed at the family home in Surrey on 10 August 2023.
The defendants allegedly killed Sara on 8 August before fleeing to Pakistan, from where Sharif called police to say he had “beat her up too much”. He had left a handwritten “confession” near her fully clothed body saying: “I swear to God that my intention was not to kill her. But I lost it.”
A postmortem found Sara had suffered fractures and 71 external injuries, including burns from an iron and human bite marks.
Giving evidence for the third day, Sharif said Batool, Sara’s stepmother, would always accuse the schoolgirl of misbehaving, alleging she had been fighting, hiding food, cutting her own hair or scribbling on walls.
Pointing to Batool in the dock, Sharif angrily said: “That poor girl has always been accused by that psycho sitting there, that psycho sitting there. She always accused my daughter … Nothing happened when I was at home. She always accused her for every single thing that happened at home.”
His barrister, Naeem Mian KC, then asked: “Did you beat the crap out of Sara?”
Sharif replied: “No, sir. I have slapped her, not once, not twice, multiple times. It’s only because I was made to … My daughter Sara was doing everything to make her life hell.”
He said Batool would say: “Look what your kid is doing,” but he added: “I should not have believed her. I never knew that I’m living with evil and psycho.”
Mian replied: “According to her, you’re the psycho.” Sharif responded: “No. Did I bite my Sara? Did I burn my Sara?”
Jurors previously heard that Sharif and Malik provided their dental impressions to show they were not responsible for the bite marks, but that Batool refused to provide hers.
Sharif added: “I gave my dental impression to figure out the person who bit my daughter like an animal on her whole arm and thighs. I didn’t do it. Faisal didn’t do it. Who else was at home?”
He wept as he told jurors how he came home unexpectedly early one day, in June or July 2023, to find Sara with her hands tied behind her back.
He said Batool was present and appeared “shocked” to see him. Sharif said: “I shouted. I screamed. I was angry, I was annoyed. Why did you do it, I asked her [Batool]. She said she’s naughty …
“She, Sara, was terrified. She was scared. She didn’t say much. I hugged her, I kissed her, then me and Beinash went into the kitchen. She apologised to me and she promised that she wouldn’t do it again. And even after those days I was that stupid that I believed her.”
He said he cut his daughter free using a knife from the kitchen.
Mian asked why he did not report Batool and Sharif replied: “It is my fault. I am an idiot. I will tell you every single thing that happened with the kids, what the person who is sitting over there, what she made me discipline my kid for things she never did.”
Sharif said he regretted not listening to Sara after Batool made an allegation about scribbles on the walls in October or November 2022. He told jurors: “Sara said, ‘Dad it’s not us, whatever is happening at home, it’s Beinash.’ And I remember like it happened yesterday. I blame myself.”
Sharif told jurors he was told it was Sara’s decision to start wearing a hijab at around nine years old and that Batool told him to let her “get into the habit” of wearing the head covering at home as well.
He denied seeing bruises on Sara’s body, only a “scratch on the nose” as his daughter wore the hijab, long sleeves and leggings even when she was at home. He said he had also seen blisters on her feet.
Sharif claimed Batool told him in July 2023 that Sara had started wearing a nappy because she “could not control her bladder” but that this was “normal” for growing girls as their bodies changed.
Mian asked: “Are you just making this up because you, the psycho, burnt Sara? You burnt her so badly that she wasn’t able to sit down?”
Sharif replied “no” and added that Sara was not allowed to do the ironing because it was dangerous. Jurors have previously heard witnesses say they saw Sara carrying out chores, including taking the washing and bins out.
Sharif said: “She even washed the dishes on the day she passed away, she even put the laundry in the machine the day she passed away.”
That evening, Sharif was working when he received a call from Batool telling him to “come home”, the court heard.
All three defendants have denied murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between 16 December 2022 and 9 August 2023.
The trial continues.
