Father admitted killing daughter in police call, court hears

The father of 10-year-old Sara Sharif called police from Pakistan and admitted he killed her at their Surrey home, a court heard.

Urfan Sharif made the confession in an eight minute-call about an hour after his family’s flight had landed in Islamabad on 10 August last year, before Sara’s body was found.

Mr Sharif, 42, Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and her uncle Faisal Malik, 29, have denied murdering the girl at the Old Bailey.

Jurors were told Mr Sharif’s case was that Ms Batool was responsible for Sara’s death and his confession on the phone call and also in a note was false to protect her.

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC told the court Sara had been the victim of violent assaults for “weeks and weeks, at least”, before he listed a series of injuries she had suffered.

He said Sara had external and internal injuries, including extensive bruising, burns and broken bones, old and new.

She had burns to her buttocks, caused by a domestic iron, and six “probable human bite marks” to her arms and legs, the prosecution said.

Dental impressions ruled out that the bite marks had been caused by the male defendants, but Ms Batool had refused to provide the impressions, the court heard.

Sara also suffered injuries to her ribs, shoulder blades, fingers and 11 separate fractures to her spine, as well as signs of a traumatic brain injury, the prosecution added.

Mr Sharif called Surrey Police from Pakistan where the family had fled before her body was found and told the operator that he killed his daughter.

The prosecutor said that in the call, which lasted eight minutes and 34 seconds, Mr Sharif told the operator that he “legally punished her” and she died.

Later in the call to police, Sara’s father was said to have told the operator that Sara had been naughty and that he then beat her up, jurors heard.

“It wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much”, the prosecutor said Mr Sharif went on to tell the operator.

However, Mr Emlyn Jones KC added: “Sara had not just been beaten up. Her treatment, certainly in the last few weeks of her life, had been appalling and brutal.”

The court also heard that next to Sara’s body was a note in Urfan Sharif’s handwriting.

Mr Emlyn Jones KC said it read: “Whoever see this note it’s me Urfan Sharif who killed my daughter by beating. I am running away because I am scared but I promise I will hand over myself and take punishment.

“I swear to God that my intention was not to kill her but I lost it.”

Mr Emlyn Jones KC added: “As in the 999 call, on the face of it, the note appears to be a confession to having caused Sara’s death by beating her up.”

Jurors also heard that police found Sara’s body on a bottom bunkbed under covers as if she was asleep.

“But she was not asleep, she was dead,” Mr Emlyn Jones KC told the jury.

The three defendants, who lived with Sara before her death in August last year, are also charged with causing or allowing the death of a child, which they deny.

Mr Emlyn Jones KC added that each defendant was seeking to “deflect the blame” onto one or both of the others.

The prosecution said it was “inconceivable” that any of the adults could have carried out the abuse “without the complicity, participation, assistance and encouragement of the others”.

“None of them ever reported Sara’s abuse to any outside agency, who could have intervened,” Mr Emlyn Jones KC added.

The trial continues.