Killer dad and stepmum to be jailed for life for murder of tragic Sara Sharif…

The “pure evil” father and stepmother of tragic 10-year-old Sara Sharif have been found guilty of her murder after social workers, teachers and police failed to save the tragic child from her lifetime of abuse.

Serial domestic abuser Urfan Sharif, 42, and wife Beinash Batool, 30 were convicted of killing Sara after a harrowing eight-week trial at the Old Bailey and will both be jailed for life when they are sentenced next week.

Judith Reed, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said it was the “ultimate tragedy that Sara was killed by the very adults who should have loved and protected her”.

As the verdicts were passed, Sharif showed no emotion while Batool, who had cowardly refused to give evidence, sobbed.

Sharif’s brother Faisal Malik, 29, slumped with his head in his hands as he was convicted of allowing the death of a child but was cleared of murder.

An independent serious case review has now been launched as it emerged that police, social workers and education authority missed 15 opportunities to intervene and save Sara’s life as her father was exposed as a “serial abuser of vulnerable women”, who had arranged a “sham marriage” to a Polish woman to remain in Britain. The wife, Olga Domin, would give birth to their daughter Sara in 2013, with social workers already involved with the family at the time of her birth.

Having previously been taken into care whisky-swigging gambling addict Sharif secured custody of his daughter in 2019 but subsequently forced her to wear a Muslim hijab to hide the sickening catalogue of injuries she was suffering at her home in Woking, Surrey. When teachers raised concerns about bruising in March 2023 he withdrew her from class to be ‘home-schooled’ and a social services case was dropped within days.

Sara was found dead in her bed four months later on September 10.

Specialist doctors and pathologists who examined Sara’s body found evidence of around 100 separate internal and external injuries, including a traumatic brain injury, multiple broken bones – including 10 spinal fractures, extensive bruising and scarring. She had also been burnt on the buttocks with a domestic iron, and suffered human bite marks.

Police found evidence she had been restrained with packing tape and beaten, while a “homemade hood” made of plastic bags was discovered in a bin.

Jurors were brought to tears on several occasions as they heard sickening details of Sara’s life of suffering. Sharif’s own barrister labelled his client was a “scumbag” who “would be in the circles of hell for eternity”.

Sharif admitted responsibility for his daughter’s death after he beat her with a cricket bat and metal pole on August 6, two days before she died, but denied murder.

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.

Police found her body lying in her bed with a confession note from her father after Sharif called 999 and told them that he had killed his daughter.

The call was made after Sharif, Batool and Malik fled the UK to fly to Pakistan with five of Sara’s siblings, aged between one and 13 years at the time.

During the near nine-minute call Sharif admitted to killing his daughter, and begged officers to go to the family home.

He said he had “panicked and left home” having “beaten her up too much” but that it wasn’t his intention to kill her.

However, he refused to say where he was and gave no indication that the family had flown to Islamabad.

It later transpired that Batool had booked the one-way tickets for the three adults and five children on August 8, 2023, the day that Sara is believed to have died in her arms

A murder investigation launched by Surrey Police and Sussex Police Major Crime Team, involved working with Interpol, the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office, the National Crime Agency, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Pakistani authorities to trace the killers.

But they remained at large for a month, assisted by relative Rasikh Munir, who helped the fugitives hide in a corn field during multiple police raids on his home.

But when the children were finally found at another relative’s home, Sharif, Batool and Malik chose to fly back to England on September 13 2023, where they were arrested as they disembarked at Gatwick Airport.

Sharif tried to blame Batool but changed his testimony in the witness box to admit “full responsibility” for Sara’s death in a bid to protect his wife and brother.

He then said he had beaten her but that he had not intended to kill her and was not responsible for the bites or burn injuries to his daughter. Batool has refused to allow dental impressions to be taken.

After the jury reached their verdicts, Sara’s heartbroken mother Olga Sharif said: “My dear Sara, I ask God to please take care of my little girl, she was taken too soon.

“Sara had beautiful brown eyes and an angelic voice. Sara’s smile could brighten up the darkest room.

“Everyone who knew Sara will know her unique character, her beautiful smile and loud laugh.

“She will always be in our hearts, her laughter will bring warmth to our lives. We miss Sara very much. Love you Princess.”

Det Ch Supt Mark Chapman, of Surrey Police and Sussex Police Major Crime Team, said: “All three defendants have only ever sought to preserve their own interests throughout this investigation and have shown no remorse for their truly dreadful behaviour.”

Maria Neophytou, acting chief executive of the NSPCC, said: “What this little girl endured over several years raises crucial questions about what more could have been done to protect her and important issues regarding child safeguarding.

“It is vital that the Child Safeguarding Practice Review identifies any ways in which Sara could have been better protected, in an effort to prevent such tragedies from happening in the future.

“This terrible case has also highlighted the ambiguity of the current legal position in England around the physical punishment of children.

“It is disturbing that Urfan Sharif believed – and told police – that he ‘did legally punish’ Sara for being naughty. Politicians at Westminster must move swiftly to abolish the defence of ‘reasonable chastisement’ and give children the same protection from assault as adults.

Children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said: “Sara’s death must also bring about an immediate shift in how we protect children like her.

“Schools, so often the place where vulnerable children are identified and protected, must be made the fourth statutory safeguarding partners with the police, social care and health services.

“We need proper oversight of children being educated at home, through the long-promised register of children not in school and by requiring councils to sign off on home educating requests for some of the most vulnerable children.

“This must go hand-in-hand with better data sharing by services and the introduction of a unique ID for every child.

“There can be no doubt that Sara was failed in the starkest terms by the safety net of services around her.

“Even before she was born, she was known to social care – and yet she fell off their radar so entirely that by the time she died, she was invisible to them all.

“We can have no more reviews, no more strategies, no more debate. When we say ‘never again’, we have to mean it – let that be Sara’s legacy.”

Urfan Sharif, Beinash Batool and Faisal Malik will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Tuesday.