Warning: This article contains descriptions that may be disturbing to some readers.
The body of Sarah Sharif10, was found at her home in Surrey, southeast of London, on August 10, 2023. The girl was alone, covered by a blanket, in a bunk bed.
As police later reported, Sarah had been murdered two days earlier. He had dozens of injuries, including burns, extensive bruising, fractures and probable human bite marks.
The subsequent autopsy concluded that he had died of unnatural causes.
When she was found by the police, her father Urfan Sharifher stepmother and the rest of the family, had fled to Pakistan.
From that country, shortly after landing, Sharif called the police in England and told the operator that he had killed Sarah.
Prosecutors in England reported that during that call Sharif said he had “legally punished” the girl and that she had died. And he argued that he had hit her but that he “had no intention” of killing her.
When the police found the girl’s body in the family home, they discovered a note written by Sharif in which She said that he had killed her and that “he had lost control.”
Meanwhile, in Pakistan, police launched a search to locate Sharif, his wife Beinash Batool and Sharif’s brother, Faisal Malik.
When they were found they were sent on a flight back to the United Kingdom. The three suspects were arrested by British police upon arrival at Gatwick Airport in London.
“Campaign of abuse”
The murder trial against Sharif, Batool and Malik began just over a year after Sara was found dead in her home.
During the trial, which lasted eight weeks, the jury heard harrowing details of Sarah’s short, desperate life.
Descriptions were given of “the campaign” of torture, beatings, abuse and injuries that the girl suffered for years at the hands of her father and stepmother.
One of the most disturbing moments of the trial was when a video was shown of the girl dancing two days before she was murdered.
“It’s heartbreaking to see,” Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones told jurors after showing them the images.
At first glance it looked like a home video filmed in a home like any other. Sarah appeared dancing in front of the television. But upon closer inspection, it could be seen that the girl was missing a small portion of her finger and had a deep scratch on her nose.
“Severely beaten and covered in bruises under her clothes, with open burn wounds on her buttocks and ankles, but “She kept doing everything she could to have fun, to behave like a girl.”declared the prosecutor at the trial.
“She moved somewhat clumsily, looked emaciated and sunken-cheeked, but at that moment she was alive, if only for a little longer.”
The severity of his injuries was later discovered.
The autopsy determined that he had 71 external injuries, including bruises, iron and boiling water burns, and “probable human bite marks.”
Also He had at least 25 fracturesincluding one in the hyoid bone of the neck and 11 in the spine from being hit with a cricket bat, a metal pole and a mobile phone.
“Under protection” since birth
Sarah was born on January 11, 2013 and was immediately placed on a child protection plan due to existing concerns about her parents.
Sharif had married Sarah’s mother, Olga Domin, in 2009, but they separated in 2015 amid a court battle over custody of the girl with both accusing each other of abuse.
One year before the separation, Sarah was placed in foster care of the State and, in 2015, at a shelter when Domin accused Sharif of domestic abuse.
Sarah continued to live with her mother until 2019 when a family court decided to grant custody of the girl to her fatherSharif, who by then had already divorced Domin and married Batool.
Sarah’s elementary school began noticing bruising on her face in June 2022. When asked about her injuries, the girl gave conflicting accounts of how she had been hurt.
The prosecution reported that as of January 2023 Sarah began wearing a hijab (a Muslim headscarf) to school that hid much of her face.
In March the school noticed that she had bruises on her face that were visible when she pulled her hijab away from her face.
A month later Urfan Sharif sent an email to the school to inform them that Sarah she would be removed from school and begin classes at home with immediate effect.
At trial, all three defendants accepted that Sarah had been subjected to abuse inside the house in the weeks before her death, but all denied killing her.
But in the note Sharif left next to the girl’s body before fleeing to Pakistan, he had written: “Whoever sees this note, it was me Urfan Sharif, the one who beat my daughter to death.”
However, during the trial, Sharif initially claimed that Batool was responsible for the girl’s death and told the jury that the confession in the note, and in the subsequent phone call to the police, was false and had been made to protect to his wife.
Then, in a dramatic turn during interrogation, Sharif He accepted “full responsibility” for his daughter’s death. “He died because of me,” he declared.
Sharif, 43, and Batool, 30, were found guilty of murder on December 11 after a trial that revealed the brutal violence they exerted on the girl.
Sharif’s brother, Faisal Malik, 29, was found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a girl.
After the verdict, the detective in charge of the case, Mark Chapman, said he had never seen “such horrible suffering in a young person” in his 30-year career.
“It is one of those cases that touches each of the people involved, and I am sure that it has also touched many members of the community,” he added.
“Deep weaknesses” of the system
The case has horrified the United Kingdom and caused many to question whether the safeguards established in the child protection system are sufficient, particularly for children who are withdrawn from school and educated at home.
In the months before his death, Sarah’s school teachers expressed concern to local social services for bruises on the girl’s body.
An investigation was opened, but six days later it was closed. When Sharif and Batool found out about the complaint, they removed Sarah from the school completely.
England’s children’s commissioner, Rachel de Souza, said Sarah’s murder exposed “deep weaknesses in our child protection system.”
“There can be no doubt that the services safety net around her failed her in the cruelest way,” he said.
“Even before she was born, she was already known by social services, but it disappeared so completely from their radar that, When he died, he was already invisible to everyone.”
De Souza told the BBC that Sarah should never have been allowed to be removed from school.
“If a child is an alleged victim of abuse, he or she cannot be homeschooled.”he indicated. “Being at school is a protection. “They are safer under the gaze of teachers.”
“We cannot let a child who is at risk… at home, go and be educated at home. “It’s crazy.”
The commissioner is now calling for a series of changes to regulations, including “adequate supervision” of children who, like Sarah, are home-schooled.
click here to read more stories from BBC News World.
Subscribe here to our new newsletter to receive a selection of our best content of the week every Friday.
You can also follow us on YouTube, instagram, TikTok, x, Facebook and in our whatsapp channel.
And remember that you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest version and activate them.
- Elsa, the third newborn baby that the same couple abandons on the streets of London in 7 years
- “Hit, kicked and left in their own urine”: the terrible abuse discovered by the BBC at a school for children with special needs in London