Ten-year-old Sara Sharif was tied up, placed in a makeshift hood, and beaten during a two-year campaign of abuse prior to her death, the Old Bailey has heard.
Sara suffered a campaign of violent abuse within the family home before she was found dead by police, having suffered a catalogue of appalling injuries including broken bones, bites, and iron burns.
It is alleged she was made to wear a hijab to cover up her injuries at school, and may have been tied up for long periods prior to her death.
Her father, minicab driver Urfan Sharif, stepmother Beinash Batool, and uncle Faisal Malik are now on trial for Sara’s murder.
They all fled to Pakistan after Sara’s death, leaving behind her body tucked into an upstairs bunkbed at the home in Surrey and with an apparent written confession from her father.
On Tuesday, messages from Batool to her sister were revealed, in which she suggested Sharif was responsible for beating his daughter up.
“Something happens to Sara I will not be able to forgive myself”, she wrote.
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.”
The court has been told there is evidence of homemade hoods made from plastic bags and tape, while Sara’s hair was found on a length of rope.
Traces of the ten-year-old’s blood were discovered on the kitchen floor, a vacuum cleaner and a cricket bat following a police search of the family home, jurors were told.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC told jurors they will heard evidence in the trial from neighbours of the Sharif family.
Rebecca Spencer, who lived next door to the family in West Byfleet recalls the “sounds of banging and rattling” starting from shortly after they moved in.
“The banging and rattling sounded as if someone was banging on and pushing at a door as if trying to open the door or alert someone that they were behind a door that would not open,” said the prosecutor.
Ms Spencer says the “rattling sounds” were “often accompanied by the sounds of a child crying or a screaming, followed by complete silence”.
“On those occasions I can only describe that silence as ‘deathly quiet’ and I cannot even imagine what had happened to make the crying or screaming child become immediately so silent”, she told police.
She recalled incidents of Batool “shouting or screaming”, as well as “bangs from the flat and which sounded like someone had been hit or smacked”.
In March 2020, Ms Spencer moved out and the new neighbour, Chloe Redwin, remembers the “sounds of children screaming” together with cries from Batool of “shut the f*** up” and “go to your room you f***ing bastard”.
Ms Redwin said the shouting did not happen when Sharif was home, and she is also set to tell the trial about “sounds of smacking”, said the prosecutor.
“They were shockingly loud and would be followed by ‘gut-wrenching screams’”, she says.
Jurors heard Sara was first seen wearing a hijab in January 2023, and a few weeks later the family moved out of the home in West Byfleet to their new home in Hammond Road, in Woking.
New neighbours, Brenin and Judith Lozeron and Judith, saw Sara playing in the garden and noticed she always wore a hijab.
Mr Emyln Jones said it is believed the use of the hijab “is indicative of the need to conceal injuries to her face and head from the outside world”.
Sara was suddenly withdrawn from school to be home-schooled in April 2023, and she was found dead on August 10, 2023, having died two days earlier.
Sharif called police to raise the alarm and offer a confession, telling a police operator: “I’ve killed my daughter - I legally punished her, and she died”. He later added: “She was naughty - I beat her up, it wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much”.
In a note left with the body, Sharif, 42, wrote: “It’s me Urfan Sharif who killed my daughter by beating” and “I swear to God that my intention was not to kill her. But I lost it.”
Sharif now says the confession was false and intended to cover for Batool, 30, who he says was responsible for the abuse. She denies responsibility.
Malik, 28, is also accused of murder, but says he was unaware of what was happening to Sara.
Some neighbours in Woking told police they did not hear anything out of the ordinary, but one recalled a “single high pitched scream which lasted a couple of seconds and stopped suddenly” two days before Sara’s death.
“It sounded to her like the scream of someone in pain”, said Mr Emlyn Jones.
The court also heard that the Sharif home had a ring doorbell, but the equipment had gone missing when the family fled to Pakistan and police discovered Sara’s body.
Jurors heard Sara’s teachers at St Mary’s Primary School in Byfleet spotted a bruise under her left eye in June 2022, and a week later her father began to talk about home schooling.
On March 10, 2023, another bruise was spotted on Sara’s chin along with a dark mark on her right eye, and a referral to social services was agreed.
Her teacher, Helen Simmons. described Sara as “happy” and said she had tried to hide the bruises seen in March 2023.
Sara was then withdrawn from the school on April 17 2023.
Sharif, Batool and Malik, formerly of Hammond Road in Woking, deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16 2022 and August 9 2023.
The trial continues.
