Sara Sharif forced to wear hijab to hide horrific injuries from abuse, court hears

A defenceless girl was beaten "black" by her brute of a father and then forced to wear a Muslim hijab to hide her horrific injuries, a court heard

Taxi driver Urfan Sharif allegedly "beat the crap" out of his 10-year-old daughter Sara Sharif with a bloodstained cricket bat and rolling pin among weapons recovered from the family home after her battered body was abandoned as her family fled to Pakistan.

But he had left a note beside her corpse telling cops: "I killed my daughter - I beat her too much."

Sharif's stepmother Beinash Batool previously confided to her sisters about violence being waged against Sara at least two years before her death, telling them "something happens to Sara I will not be able to forgive myself".

Batool, 30, had blamed husband Sharif, 42, for carrying out the savage attacks in a series of WhatsApp messages dating back to 2019, the Old Bailey was told.

But the prosecution allege Batool and Sharif's brother Faisal Malik, 29, both played a part in Sara's death after she was hooded, restrained, burned with an iron, bitten and hit with a belt buckle and pole.

William Emlyn Jones KC, prosecuting, said the messages showed Sharif as an "angry parent before reading one which said: "Urfan beat the c**p 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."

Mr Emlyn Jones said: "As a minimum, it shows that Sara was being hurt and injured as long ago as spring of 2021 - so that is more than two years before her death - and that Beinash Batool was aware and even on her version of events, she didn't stop it."

In February 2022, the court heard she told another sister Sharif was "beating Sara up ... 'cos she's being naughty'."

She said that Sara had "anxiety" and was sick whenever she ate, adding: "Urfan's behaviour makes her do it more."

Then she told her sister: "Something happens to Sara I will not be able to forgive myself."

In the summer of 2022, the court heard Bartool complained she could not cover up the child's bruises, saying: "He beat Sara up yesterday and I can't send her to school on Monday looking like that."

Sara was taken out of school in April 2023 and died four months later.

Prior to her death neighbours noted Sara had started to wear a hijab more regularly which Bill Emlyn Jones, KC, prosecuting, said was a bid to conceal the appalling injuries she was receiving at home.

Primary school staff had also previously noticed bruising under Sara's eyes and on her chin in March 2023, but the victim gave "multiple conflicting stories as to how she got the bruises".

Her body was found abandoned in an upstairs bedroom of her home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10 last year after her fugitive father called 999 from Pakistan and confessed to killing her, jurors have heard.

When police searched the home they found "weapons everywhere" with Sara's blood on the kitchen floor, on a hoover and on a rolling pin, before discovering the cricket bat outside bearing Sara's blood.

In a wendy house in the garden police also discovered a belt, which bore Sara's DNA as well as that of her father Sharif and her uncle Malik.

A plastic-coated metal pole was also recovered from an outhouse, which experts matched to the shape of the bruises Sara suffered.

Mr Emlyn Jones showed jurors images of the items saying: "You can now look again at the bruises and broken bones Sara had suffered with a clearer understanding of how some of those injuries appear to have been inflicted."

Officers also recovered bits of plastic bag bound up with parcel tape described as "home-made hoods" which the prosecutor said had been "placed over Sara's face and then taped in place."

The hoods were stained with Sara's blood and saliva and contained Sharif's fingerprints.

Police tested a number of other household items and started to "see weapons everywhere"

Including a length of black rope which bore hairs ripped from Sara's head and a number of rolls of parcel tape.

Discarded in bins outside the family home were towels and Sara's leggings, which were soaking wet with urine, as well as a soiled nappy Sara had been forced to wear.

The prosecutor said: "Consider for a moment what it would take to keep Sara tied up, taped up or retrained, or hooded, in the way that these objects indicate.

"If this was being done by one of the adults in the house - why aren't the others intervening, why aren't the others releasing her? Why aren't the others helping her, preventing this terrible treatment?

The court was told Sharif removed his daughter from the school register in April 2023, saying she would be home schooled, which meant she was "not seen by anyone in the outside world" prior to her death.

Neighbours of the family's cramped three-bed home heard screaming and the sound of a child crying accompanied by 'banging and rattling' as if someone was trying to alert someone that they were trapped behind a door.

Neighbour Rebecca Spencer said she would often hear screams, crying and then "deathly quiet" when a distraught child fell silent.

Mr Emlyn Jones said: "On other occasions Ms Spencer would hear other bangs from the flat and which sounded like someone had been hit or smacked....Ms Spencer did consider reporting what she heard to social services but ultimately decided against it."

A new tenant Chloe Redwin similarly described hearing a child screaming followed by their Batool shouting, "shut the f*** up" and "go to your room you f****** b******", it was said.

Ms Redwin would also frequently hear the mother refer to children as "c****", jurors were told.

The prosecutor added: "On occasions Ms Redwin would hear sounds of smacking; they were shockingly loud and would be followed by gut-wrenching screams of a young female child.

"Over the screaming she would hear the mother shout, 'shut up' and sometimes the sounds of further smacking would be heard followed by shouting."

Tragically none of the neighbours alerted the authorities as Sara seemed "smartly dressed" and there were no obvious signs of injury, it was revealed.

The family removed their Ring doorbell camera before they fled to Pakistan on August 9, the day after the murder, it was said.

The prosecutor said: "You might want to ask yourselves why that would have been done; and what its removal might tell you about the presence of mind of whoever removed it, as the family fled to Pakistan, leaving behind them Sara's dead body and an otherwise empty house which would inevitably be treated as a crime scene."

Police believe Sara died on August 8 last year after suffering an appalling catalogue of injuries following a "brutal' campaign of violence.

Her whole body was covered in bruises, bite marks, puncture wounds and abrasions from "significant and repetitive blunt force trauma", it was said.

A post-mortem examination revealed she had been beaten with objects, strangled, and was "left severely unwell, close to death" from a series of head injuries.

In addition she had 11 spinal fractures and suffered broken ribs, collar bone, shoulder blades, both of her arms, her hands and some of her fingers were fractured.

Following her death Sharif and the family spent £5,180 on flights to Pakistan leaving early the next day.

Sharif then rang 999 an hour after they landed to tell police: "I've killed my daughter. I legally punished her, and she died" before adding: "She was naughty, I beat her up. It wasn't my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much."

After a month on the run the family flew back to Gatwick where police arrested Sharif, his wife and his younger brother Faisal Malik, 29, who were all living in the house at the time of the murder.

Mr Emlyn Jones said all three defendants had played a part in Sara's murder.

All three defendants deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16 2022 and August 9 2023.

The trial continues.