The father of Sara Sharif wept as he told how his limp daughter briefly opened her eyes and asked for water before dying in his arms, a court has heard.
Urfan Sharif said his wife, Beinash Batool, did not call an ambulance in Sara’s final moments, but had said the 10-year-old was being “dramatic and pretending”.
The taxi driver said he attempted to resuscitate Sara as Batool said in Urdu: “Wake her up, wake her up, she cannot die.”
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.”
Giving evidence for the fourth day, Sharif said it was “cowardly, selfish and inhumane,” to abandon Sara like an “orphan” but that Batool had convinced him to flee to Pakistan.
He said she dictated some of the words he wrote in the “confession” after he agreed to take the blame for Sara’s death to protect his family. He told jurors: “I would do anything for my family.”
Sharif told jurors that Batool called him just after 7pm on 8 August to tell him to come home and he arrived in Woking about 45 minutes later.
He said he found Sara on Batool’s lap in the couple’s bedroom. He told jurors: “She [Batool] said Sara was running downstairs, [another child] was running after her, and she fell down, and she’s dramatic, she’s pretending, and she’s not getting up.”
He added: “I lifted her [Sara’s] arm and I asked Sara to get up but she wouldn’t get up. Her arm was limp. When I dropped it, it just went down.
“I tapped her face, but she didn’t get up so I took Sara from Beinash’s lap and tapped her again. She whispered, she opened her eyes a little bit, said she is thirsty, needs water, and she’s feeling sleepy.
“I shouted for water. But she [Sara] didn’t drink. She did not wake up, she was sleeping.”
He said he shouted for an ambulance because Sara was not breathing and had no pulse, adding: “I started giving her CPR. I was numb, like I am now. I was shocked.”
Sharif said Batool stood by and shouted at him in Urdu: “Wake her up, wake her up, she cannot die.”
After about 10 minutes, he stopped and Batool hugged him and said, “Leave her, Sara is dead,” the court heard.
Sharif said he asked Batool where the ambulance was, but she told him: “There’s no point. There is no need because she’s dead.”
He told jurors he did not call emergency services himself because Batool “snatched” the phone from him and told him he should protect the family.
He broke down in tears as he added: “Her lifeless body was in my arms. I picked her up after closing her eyes. I just hugged her, I was kissing her. I couldn’t believe she was dead.”
He added: “I was numb, my daughter was in my hands, my world was crushed, the whole world has fallen on me.”
The defendant claimed the initial plan was for Batool to go to her relatives in Luton so he could call the police and say Sara died in his care to protect his family.
Batool made 30 calls to members of her family but they did not help because they were “scared”, he said.
Sharif said Batool then told him a second story about Sara’s injuries after he spotted a red mark on her neck. She told him another child had punched and kicked Sara and stamped on her stomach, the court heard.
Sharif said Batool told him to take responsibility, saying he would go to prison for three to five years. Sharif said he wrote a letter confessing to killing his daughter so he could “take the blame”.
Sharif said he turned on the fan in Sara’s bedroom before leaving for Heathrow airport on 9 August, telling jurors: “I was still not ready to accept my daughter was dead. She was the first girl born in my family in 30 years.”
The defendants remained in Pakistan for 35 days but Sharif said he always intended to return to the UK, adding: “To protect my family, I’ll take any punishment.”
But he said he changed his mind once he was arrested and police questioned him about the extent of Sara’s injuries.
Sharif told jurors: “They were talking about fractures, they were talking about burns, they were talking about bruises, they were talking about head injuries, there was a lot of them.
“I couldn’t believe it, I was just conflicted, I was crying … why on earth didn’t I know about that, so much was going on under my nose and I didn’t know it.”
The trial continues.
