The murder of Sara Sharif “starkly illustrates the dangers” of parents automatically being able to homeschool their children, the judge sentencing her killers warned.
The 10-year-old had been pulled out of school just months before her death, in a “ruse adopted for wholly selfish purposes” to cover up evidence of her repeated beatings.
Sara, whose battered body was discovered at her family home in Woking, Surrey, in August last year, was removed from school by her family, despite teachers having noticed marks on her face and referred her to social services.
It is a matter of concern that parents who are abusing or who have malign intent towards their children appear to be able to homeschool more or less at will and without supervision
Homeschooling her allowed the abuse at the hands of her father Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, to carry on “beyond the gaze of the authorities”, Mr Justice Cavanagh told them on Tuesday.
Their life sentences were imposed just as the Government introduced a new Bill to Parliament, promising to strengthen safeguards for children.
Measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will see parents no longer having an automatic right to take their children out of school for home education if the young person is subject to a child protection investigation or under a child protection plan – meaning the child is suspected of being at risk of significant harm.
The proposed legislation will also give local authorities power to intervene and require school attendance for any child if the home environment is assessed as unsuitable or unsafe.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said “too many children have been failed by their last line of defence: the state” in recent years, and described the Bill as a “seminal moment for child protection”.
Sharif and Batool had tried to cover up their abuse of Sara, twice taking her out of school, in a case the judge said “brings into sharp relief the dangers of unsupervised homeschooling of vulnerable children”.
Passing sentence at the Old Bailey, he said: “When they felt they needed to, you, Urfan Sharif and Beinash Batool, were able to hide the abuse that Sara was suffering by the simple expedient of announcing that she was to be homeschooled.”
He said while homeschooling can happen for good reasons and with parents having good intentions, “this case starkly illustrates the dangers”.
He added: “It is a matter of concern that parents who are abusing or who have malign intent towards their children appear to be able to homeschool more or less at will and without supervision.”
On top of the abuse, the judge said it appeared Sara was also “deprived of an education” when she was pulled from school.
He said: “The pretext of homeschooling was simply a ruse adopted for wholly selfish purposes, to cover up the abuse to which Sara was subject, and to continue with the abuse beyond the gaze of the authorities.”
The wider point in terms of reasonable chastisement, of course, we will always look at these areas but we do not have any plans to legislate
On Tuesday, the couple were jailed for life for Sara’s murder, with Sharif handed a minimum term of 40 years and Batool given 33 years.
Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, who was found guilty of causing or allowing her death, was jailed for 16 years.
The case prompted Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to say there were “questions that need to be answered” on protections for children.
Campaigners have also been calling for an end to the legal defence of “reasonable chastisement” in England set out in the Children’s Act of 2004.
Sharif claimed in a call to police after fleeing England for Pakistan that he “did legally punish” his daughter and that he “beat her up too much”.
Asked about the case and whether smacking would be banned as part of the Bill, Ms Phillipson told Times Radio: “I think we are dealing with someone who committed unspeakable brutality against his own daughter, ultimately killing her.
“So I think I’m slightly concerned about taking at face value what he would say about the justifications that he offered during that trial. But the wider point in terms of reasonable chastisement, of course, we will always look at these areas but we do not have any plans to legislate.”
Wales made any type of corporal punishment, including smacking, hitting, slapping and shaking, illegal in March 2022 while Scotland introduced a similar ban in November 2020.
Other aspects of the newly-introduced Bill will include new registers to identify children not in school, and a measure giving children a unique identifier number – akin to a national insurance number – in a bid to ensure issues can be tracked and shared across services “preventing children from falling through the cracks”.
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said: “The urgency with which this legislation is being introduced to Parliament demonstrates the importance of these issues. It lays a foundation for change in many children’s lives – many of whom have been neglected or hidden by services working in silo.”
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said the measures due to be introduced make “good sense, and frankly, cannot come soon enough”, while school leaders’ union NAHT also welcomed the Bill, saying the not-in-school register is an “important safeguarding measure…finally being taken after years of delay”.
