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Father, stepmother and uncle convicted for killing British-Pak girl Sara Sharif
The quantum of punishment will be delivered on Tuesday as the judge found case to be “extremely stressful and traumatic” for the jurors.
Three members of British-Pakistani girl Sara Sharif’s family have been found guilty over the 10-year-old’s death after years of horrific abuse, PA Media reported.
Her father Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, were found guilty of her murder. Her uncle Faisal Malik, 29, was convicted of causing or allowing her death following a trial at the Old Bailey in the UK.
The quantum of punishment will be delivered on Tuesday as the judge found case to be “extremely stressful and traumatic” for the jurors.
Sara was allegedly beaten to death four years after taxi driver Sharif was awarded custody, despite accusations of abuse against him, jurors heard, the PA Media report added.
According to Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones, Sharif had gone on to create a “culture of violent discipline”, where assaults on Sara had “become completely routine, completely normalised”.
The prosecution alleged that Sharif had meant to cause his daughter serious harm and the other two defendants took part in the abuse, encouraged or helped him. The convictions raise questions about the past involvement of the family court and social services in Sara’s case.
What was the case?
The family had fled to Pakistan after Sara died at the family home in Woking, Surrey, on August 8 of last year. Sharif called police when he arrived in Islamabad and confessed he had beaten her up “too much”.
Officers went to his former home and found Sara’s broken and battered body in a bunk bed, with a confession note from Sharif on the pillow. 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 that she had been bound with packaging tape and hooded during the assaults, which would have left her in excruciating pain, jurors heard. Batool had told her sisters that Sharif would regularly “beat the crap” out of Sara over the course of more than two years, but failed to report what was going on.
The three accused returned to the UK on September 13 last year and were detained within minutes of a flight touching down at Gatwick airport.
Sharif admitted hitting Sara repeatedly with a cricket bat and pole, strangling her with his bare hands, and battering her over the head with a mobile phone. He denied burning her or putting a hood over her head during “punishments” for her so-called “naughty” behaviour.
Later, he backtracked on his confession and claimed he did not mean to seriously harm Sara, despite having earlier indicated he wanted to change his plea. Under cross-examination, it was alleged two other children he was connected with had been burned and bitten and he was the “common denominator”, according to PA Medi.
Although the bites on Sara’s body did not match Sharif’s teeth it was alleged he could have encouraged Batool, who alone refused to give a set of her tooth impressions.
It was alleged that he had been controlling and manipulative towards Batool, as well as Sara’s mother Olga and two Polish ex-girlfriends.
Batool and university student Malik refused to give evidence but denied involvement. It was claimed on Batool’s behalf that Sharif was the “sole perpetrator” of the violence against his “spirited, bold and fierce” daughter.
