Those responsible for Sara Sharif’s death are “executioners” and “sadists”, the 10-year-old’s mother has said.
On Tuesday, Sara’s father, Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, were jailed for life for her murder, with Sharif handed a minimum term of 40 years and Batool 33 years, after a trial at the Old Bailey.
Her uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, was jailed for 16 years for causing or allowing the girl’s death.
To this day, I can’t understand how someone can be such a sadist to a child
Ahead of their sentencing, a victim impact statement from Sara’s mother, Olga Sharif, who was watching the hearing via an online link, was read to the court.
Mrs Sharif paid tribute to her daughter’s “unique character” and said she was an “angel” who “left us too soon”.
In the statement, read by prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC, 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.
“Sara is not far from home and she is visited every day. I always light candles for her and there are flowers with her.
“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.
“I hoped that when she grew up we would meet, but now that won’t happen, she left us too soon.
“What has come out in court I cannot understand. What’s wrong with these people? How they allowed it.”
Addressing the defendants in the dock, she said: “You are sadists, although even this word is not enough for you. I would say you are executioners.”
Mr Emlyn Jones said Mrs Sharif had expressed a view about the sentence the defendants should receive, and referred to them as “these cowards”.
Sara’s mother said she was “under constant psychological supervision” and “taking strong sedatives” as a result of her daughter’s death.
Before her death, Sara had suffered more than 25 broken bones, from being hit repeatedly with a cricket bat, metal pole and mobile phone.
She had a broken hyoid bone in her neck from being throttled, iron burns on her buttocks, boiling water burns on her feet, and human bite marks on her arm and thigh.
There was also evidence she had been bound with packaging tape and hooded during the assaults, which would have left her in excruciating pain, the trial heard.
The schoolgirl’s body was found on a bunk bed in her home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10 last year.
During his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Cavanagh paid tribute to Sara, saying she was “very courageous” and had “remained positive and cheerful in the most terrible circumstances”.
