Schoolgirl Sara Sharif was hooded, restrained and beaten with a belt buckle and pole in a “campaign of abuse” lasting more than two years before her death, a court has heard.
Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of his 10-year-old daughter’s murder alongside Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 29. All three deny murder and the defence is yet to mount its case.
Police found Sara’s body in a bunk bed in her family home in Woking, Surrey, on 10 August last year, with “disturbing” injuries that included bitemarks, scalding and broken bones.
The discovery followed a 999 call from her father Sharif in Pakistan who told the operator he “beat her up too much” for being “naughty”, the court was told this week.
It is alleged Sara had died two days before and within hours the defendants had booked a flight out of the country.
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said evidence, including a soiled nappy, makeshift hoods, and a variety of potential weapons such as rolling pins and a cricket bat, suggested more than one adult was involved.
With the trial before Mr Justice Cavanagh set to continue until December, we take a look at the events that led up to Sara’s tragic death and the subsequent murder trial, according to the prosecution.
2018/2019
Jurors heard that other neighbours from when the Sharif family lived in West Byfleet, where they moved at some point between 2018 and 2019, and later in Woking, where they lived from April 2023, had heard screams, smacking and crying coming from their home.
The court was told that neighbour Rebecca Spencer would hear: “banging and rattling sounds”, that: “would often be accompanied by the sounds of a child crying or a screaming, followed by complete silence.”
She added in a statement read by prosecutors that: “On those occasions I can only describe the silence as deathly quiet and I cannot even imagine what had happened to make the crying or screaming child become immediately so silent.”
Ms Spencer also described bangs from inside the Sharif’s flat like someone had been hit or smacked, the court was told.
Mr Emlyn Jones said she considered reporting it to social services but ultimately decided against it.
2019
A series of WhatsApp messages that Batool sent to her sisters dating back to 2019 showed “all was not well” in the household and cast Sharif as an “angry parent”, Mr Emlyn Jones told the court.
March 2020
In March 2020, neighbour Chloe Redwin allegedly heard children screaming and a woman shouting “shut the f*** up” and “go to your room you f***ing bastard”.
She told of loud smacking followed by “gut-wrenching screams” of a young girl and a woman shouting “shut up”, jurors were told.
May 2021
In messages to her sisters, Batool accused Sharif of beating his daughter up, saying: “Something happens to Sara I will not be able to forgive myself.”
In May 2021, she wrote: “Urfan beat the crap out of Sara. She’s covered in bruises, literally beaten black.
“I feel really sorry for Sara, poor girl can’t walk. I really want to report him.”
June 2022
In the first of two recordings of Sara’s injuries, jurors were told that the 10-year-old’s primary school noted she had a bruise under her left eye in June 2022.
December 2022
University student and part-time McDonald’s worker Malik moved into the family home in December 2022 and was present when screaming and slapping was going on, according to neighbour Ms Redwin.
January 2023
From last January, Sara began to wear a hijab to school, which the court heard was unusual as she had never worn one before and neither did anyone else in the family.
Mr Emlyn Jones suggested: “The fact that Sara began to wear the hijab at around this time is indicative of the need to conceal injuries to her face and head from the outside world.”
March 2023
Sara’s primary school recorded that she had a bruise on her chin and a dark mark on her right eye in March 2023, the court heard.
The school contacted Children’s Single Point of Access for advice, and it was agreed that a referral to social services was needed, Mr Emlyn Jones said.
Sara’s teacher Helen Simmons described her as a “happy child”, who at times would be “sassy”.
When she asked Sara about bruises last March, she gave conflicting explanations and pulled her hijab to hide her face.
April 2023
Sharif informs Sara’s school that she will be home-schooled with immediate effect last April, four months before her death.
Sara and her family move to a three-bedroom house in Hammond Road in the Horsell area of Woking on 6 April.
July 2023
In the weeks before Sara died, Batool allegedly bought 18 rolls of parcel tape online within nine days, jurors heard.
There was evidence that the child had been restrained with her head covered with “homemade hoods” comprised of the parcel tape and plastic bags, the prosecution told the court.
Fingerprints allegedly belonging to Sharif were found on one of the bags that was tested by forensics and on the non-adhesive side of a bit of parcel tape.
6 August 2023
A neighbour told police that two days before Sara’s death she had heard a “single high-pitched scream”, which lasted a couple of seconds and then suddenly stopped.
Mr Emlyn Jones KC said: “It sounded to her like the scream of someone in pain. As she put it, ‘it didn’t sound good’.”
8 August 2023
9.07pm – Beinash Batool, Sara’s stepmother, calls Southall Travel agency to ask about flights to Pakistan, but after 50 minutes the call ends without flights being arranged.
10pm – Sharif contacts Nadeem Riaz, who works for a money transfer business, and says he needs a flight to Pakistan the next day.
9 August 2023
9.25am – CCTV captures Sharif and his family arriving at Heathrow Airport to take a flight to Pakistan at 2pm.
10 August 2023
2.47am – Sharif has arrived in Pakistan and phones police in the UK, saying: “I’ve killed my daughter. I legally punished her, and she died. She was naughty. I beat her up, it wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.”
Police go to the family home in Woking and find Sara’s body in a bed with a note by the pillow in Sharif’s handwriting.
Traces of the 10-year-old’s blood were discovered on the kitchen floor, a vacuum cleaner and a cricket bat following a later police search of the family home, the prosecution said.
The court heard that expert analysis of some of the child’s bruises concluded that they could have been caused by a pole or the buckle of a belt recovered from a children’s Wendy house in the garden.
15 August 2023
A post-mortem examination is undertaken which concludes Sara’s death was not a natural one, with the 10-year-old found to have suffered dozens of injuries. There were alleged signs of blunt force trauma inflicted over several weeks, bruises, iron burns to the buttocks, restraint marks, scalding from hot water and suspected human bite marks, jurors heard.
6 September 2023
Sharif and Batool appear in a short video clip provided to and broadcast by Sky News in which Batool refers to Sara’s death as an “incident”.
13 September 2023
Sharif, Batool and Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik take a flight into Gatwick and are met by police who arrest them on the plane.
14 October 2023
The three defendants, of Woking, Surrey, go on trial at the Old Bailey, having denied murder and causing or allowing Sara’s death.
