Sara Sharif’s mother called her daughter’s murderers “sadists and executioners” as they were jailed for life.
Olga Domin joined the Old Bailey hearing remotely as Urfan Sharif, 43, and Beinash Batool, 30, were sentenced for killing the schoolgirl.
On Tuesday the judge, Mr Justice Cavanagh, described the campaign of abuse meted out on Sara as “torture” as he condemned the defendants for not showing “a shred of remorse”.
His voice shook as he described some of the injuries suffered by Sara, who was “trussed up” with masking tape and a skipping rope and hooded with plastic bags, saying: “This treatment of a 10-year-old child is nothing short of gruesome.” Had she lived, he said, one of her burns would have caused permanent disfigurement.
Sharif and Batool were found guilty of Sara’s murder last Wednesday after an eight-week trial at the Old Bailey. Sara’s paternal uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, who was living with the family at the time, was found not guilty of murder but was convicted of causing or allowing her death.
Cavanagh sentenced Sharif to a minimum term of 40 years and Batool to a minimum term of 33 years. Malik was jailed for 16 years.
The judge said: “Sara’s death was the culmination of years of neglect, frequent assaults and what can only be described as the torture of this small child, mainly, but not entirely, at the hands of you, her father, Urfan Sharif.
“The degree of cruelty involved is almost inconceivable. This happened in plain sight, in front of the rest of the family, including, for the last eight months of Sara’s life, in front of you, Faisal Malik.
“The courts at the Old Bailey have been witness to many accounts of awful crimes, but few can have been more terrible than the account of the despicable treatment of this poor child that the jury in this case have had to endure.”
The prosecutor, William Emlyn Jones KC, said Sara was subjected to serious violence from at least the age of six, with a variety of weapons such as a cricket bat, a domestic iron and an improvised metal truncheon made from the broken leg of a high chair.
In a victim impact statement read out at the Old Bailey, Domin said she had been under “constant psychological supervision” since her daughter’s death as she called the defendants “cowards”.
She said: “Sara was always smiling. She had her own unique character. The only thing I had left to give to my daughter was to give her a beautiful Catholic funeral that she deserves. She is now an angel who looks down on us from heaven, she is no longer experiencing violence. To this day I can’t understand how someone can be such a sadist to a child.”
Addressing the defendants in the dock, Domin, who joined the hearing from her native Poland, said: “You are sadists, although even this word is not enough for you. I would say you are executioners.”
Sara was found dead in a bunk bed at the family home in Surrey on 10 August 2023. The couple had killed her two days earlier and fled to Pakistan, from where Sharif called police to say he had beaten her up “too much” for being naughty. 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 examination found Sara had 71 external injuries, including bruises, burns and human bite marks. She also had at least 25 fractures, including 11 to her spine.
The judge said Sharif “plainly derived grim satisfaction” from the sustained violence, and that he had done everything possible to avoid punishment for murder, saying: “You are suffused with self-pity.” He added it was hard to contemplate the “stress, pain and trauma” suffered by Sara, who must have been “in a constant state of terror”.
He said Sara was treated as “a skivvy” in the family from a young age and was made to do the washing, tidy the house and care for her youngest sibling. Cavanagh added he had no doubt that Sharif singled out Sara for abuse because she was a girl, she was not a child of his current marriage and she was prepared to stand up to him.
Addressing Sharif’s motives, the judge said: “Sara was a brave, feisty and spirited child. She was not submissive, as you wanted her to be. She stood up to you.”
The judge said Sara could be seen smiling and dancing in a video taken two days before her death even though her mobility was impaired by that point. He said: “It is clear that Sara stood up for herself and remained positive and cheerful in the most terrible circumstances. She was a very courageous little girl, with an unquenchable spirit.”
He said the assaults on Sara took place in front of other children, which would have had a “brutalising effect” on them, and that “grotesque” punishments were inflicted on her in the weeks before she died.
The judge said: “Sara was tied up and was even hooded, by a grotesque combination of parcel tape, rope, and a plastic bag. She was not even allowed to go to the toilet, but was put in pull-up nappies, and was left to wallow in her own urine and faeces. The torture got worse. She was burned with an iron and boiling water was poured on her ankles.”
He said Batool encouraged and assisted Sharif in the assaults and was “prepared to sacrifice Sara” because she was frightened of losing her own children.
He added: “I can be sure that you took part in the tying up and hooding of Sara: this was not the work of one individual, and Sara was tied up even when Urfan Sharif was not in the house.
“Still further, I have no doubt that you were present at and involved in the burning of Sara with an iron, which led to the terrible burns on her buttocks. This was a two-person job: one to hold Sara and one to press the iron on to her body.”
The judge said Malik had failed to take any steps to protect Sara.
The jail terms will take into account time served on remand, with a minimum term of 38 years and 272 days for Sharif and 31 years and 272 days for Batool.
