‘Inhuman’ violence against Sara Sharif ‘normalised’ by defendants, jurors told

Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, his wife Beinash Batool, 30, and brother Faisal Malik, 29, are accused of being party to years-long abuse which culminated in her death last August.

The 10-year-old was found dead at the family home in Woking, Surrey, the day after the defendants fled to Pakistan, the Old Bailey has heard.

She had suffered dozens of injuries, including multiple broken bones, bites, iron and boiling water burns, and signs she was hooded and tied up with tape, the Old Bailey has heard.

Giving evidence, Sharif had initially blamed Batool for Sara’s death, but on the seventh day in the witness box told jurors he took “full responsibility”.

He admitted throttling her with his bare hands and battering her with a cricket bat, metal pole and mobile phone, even whacking her in the stomach as she lay dying.

He denied he had anything to do with human bite marks on her arm and domestic iron burns on her bottom.

On Thursday, prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC insisted all the defendants must have known what was going on in the house.

He said Batool knew Sharif would deliver a beating on the many occasions she called him home because Sara had been “sick” or “naughty” but she did it anyway.

“She is setting her up for a beating. She’s making the call that makes the beating happen, she is calling it on and she is responsible for that, isn’t she?” he said.

Sharif denied it.

Mr Emlyn Jones said that restraining and inflicting “excruciatingly” painful iron burns to Sara’s buttocks would have required two people.

Sharif told jurors he was not present but suggested it “must have been kids”.

Mr Emlyn Jones responded: “How low will you stoop? An injury that would have caused her lasting pain, open, gaping when she died. An injury said to be at least two weeks old … made worse by the fact she was being made to wear a dirty nappy, wasn’t she?

“What about burns to her feet, what about having boiling water poured on her feet while they were tied together.

“If you didn’t burn her with the iron and if you didn’t burn her feet that means we have got more than one abuser in the house.”

He went on: “Is it fair to say violence to Sara had become completely normalised in that house. It had become acceptable. It was her life being beaten, being hurt, being punished.”

He referred to a video shown to jurors of Sara at a barbecue saying none of the adults present “bats an eyelid” at her black eye.

The “revolting” practice of tying Sara up with packaging tape had became an alternative method of punishing her when Sharif was not at home, the prosecutor said.

“It’s inhuman isn’t, Mr Sharif? You can’t bring yourself to admit this. The question is, who is doing it?

“My suggestion is everyone has got to be in on it. Otherwise it just gets undone by someone else,” Mr Emlyn Jones said.

The defendant admitted he had beaten Sara with a bat because he was angry at her vomiting and soiling herself.

Mr Emlyn Jones said: “That is a brutal weapon to take to anyone and you were using it because you were angry, hitting her again and again because you were in a rage.

Sharif said: “I was not intending to do her any harm.”

The prosecutor said: “Just think to yourself whether that makes a blind bit of sense that you could hit a child repeatedly with a cricket bat and not intend to harm them. It is a lie, isn’t it?

“Unfortunately, that means you have realised that means you are admitting murder and you’re still trying to get away with murder. Now you have had to back-pedal from your admission.”

Sharif restated his earlier statement that he took “full responsibility”.

Mr Emlyn Jones replied: “It doesn’t feel like you are taking responsibility. It feels like you are wriggling.”

The court heard Sara suffered a number of spine fractures from the beatings, similar to those sustained when a child falls 20ft from a roof.

Mr Emlyn Jones pressed: “You did that to Sara by hitting her with the force as if she had fallen from a second storey roof again and again and again.

“Last time to do the decent thing: When you beat Sara so hard with a cricket bat that you broke her spine did you intend to cause her at least a serious injury.”

Sharif replied: “No.”

Mr Emlyn Jones asserted: “You are a coward because you will not admit what you have done.”

“You are a coward, aren’t you, because it’s a coward who bullies and beats a child to make himself feel in control and it’s a coward who sits there and tries to blame other people for it.

“It’s no secret in the house about your violence to Sara. You can’t keep that secret, beating someone with a cricket bat.”

Sharif insisted that everything was kept separate from Malik because he would have told their father.

Earlier, Michael Ivers KC, for Malik, questioned Sharif about evidence that Sara was the second child connected with him to suffer bite marks and iron burns.

He said: “What are the chances that two children you are connected with ended up with burns from a domestic iron and bite marks?”

Sharif replied: “I was not blamed for that. It wasn’t me. I did not bite.”

Mr Ivers asserted: “Of course it’s not a coincidence, you are the common denominator.

“Did you tell someone to do so? Did you have an idea how she (Sara) should be punished? Is that the truth of all of this?”

Sharif replied: “There are certain things I can’t explain. I’ve got no words.”

Sharif, Batool and Malik, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, Surrey, deny murder and causing or allowing Sara’s death and the trial continues.