As a damming report reveals Sara Sharif’s murder at the hands of her vile father and stepmother was preventable, the heartbreaking reality of her final tortured days has been laid bare
Sara Sharif, a once bubbly school girl who loved dancing and fairytales, endured so much pain and suffering at the hands of her evil dad and step-mother that she convinced herself she deserved it.
Weak, beaten and in excurciating pain, Sara was repeatedly punished and tormented by her parents, who hid her away from the world. Undoubtedly terrified of just how far her caregivers were willing to go, the little girl must have felt desperately alone and confused as those who were meant to love her continued to hurt her in unimaginable ways.
She never spoke out about the house of horrors she was trapped in, but there were glaring signs of danger that safeguarding services missed. And now a new report into her tragic death has confirmed that Sara could have been saved, with a “catologue” of missed opportunities.
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Remembered by loved ones as a “unique” child with an “angelic voice”, Sara loved playing the guitar and hoped to one day become a ballerina. But in August 2023, these dreams were stamped out forever following a devastating campaign of abuse by those who should have cared for her.
On August 10, 2023, police received a phone call from Sara’s father, Urfan Sharif, who wept as he told the operator, “I’ve killed my daughter. I legally punished her, and she died.” In what he would later claim was a false confession, ‘scumbag’ Sharif insisted: “I beat her up, it wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.”
When officers arrived at the silent family home in Woking, they found young Sara dead and alone beneath the blanket of her bunk bed, alongside a note which read, “It’s me, Urfan Sharif, who killed my daughter by beating. I swear to God that my intention was not to kill her. But I lost it. I am running away because I am scared.”
By this time, Sharif, 42, had fled to Pakistan alongside Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, her uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, and five other children aged between one and 13 years old. Sharif, Batool, and Malike were arrested on September 13 of that year at Gatwick Airport after returning to the UK. Both Sharif and Batool were found guilty of Sara’s murder last December, while Malik was convicted of causing or allowing her death.
The Old Bailey heard in devastating detail the torment Sara had been subjected to in her final days, in a household that went to great lengths to conceal the torture going on behind their front door.
Doctors who examined Sara’s body concluded that she had sustained an “awful constellation of injuries” and had been tied up and restrained, “perhaps for lengthy periods”. Sara was found to have 10 fractures to her spine, as well as breaks to her right collarbone, two ribs, both shoulder blades, both arms and hands and three fingers.
She fractures in 25 areas all over her body and one “extremely rare” neck injury, not seen before by a radiologist on a child. Some of the injuries were fresh and just ten days old when helpless Sara was found.
Medics also discovered what appeared to be five bite marks on Sara’s left arm, as well as one on her inner thigh. Tests discovered these marks were not made by the two male defendants, while step-mum Batool refused to provide a dental impression for ‘comparison purposes’.
A 6cm by 5cm burn mark from an iron was also discovered on Sara’s buttocks during the post-mortem. It hadn’t been treated. Emlyn Jones KC told the court: “Sara had not just been beaten up. Her treatment, certainly in the last few weeks of her life, had been appalling. It had been brutal. And throughout, these three defendants were the adults living in the house where Sara had lived, where she had suffered, and where she had died.”
The month before he was convicted, Sharif admitted to being responsible for Sara’s death, saying he had beaten her repeatedly using a cricket bat, a metal pole and a mobile phone and throttled her with his hands. However, he denied inflicting the bite marks and burns or using a homemade hood to punish her.
Professor Owen Arthurs, consultant paediatric radiologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, said Sara’s injuries were so severe they were comparable to having been in a “road traffic accident” or “kicked by a horse”.
In 2021, aged eight, Sara had begun to wear the hijab which hid bruising and injuries to her face and head in the later period of her life. Expert advice since obtained from the local Muslim community suggested it would have been “highly unusual” for such a young child to decide to wear it when other family members did not, but Sara’s school accepted her step-mother’s explanation without probing further – a failing cited in this week’s damming report.
Then in April 2023, just months before she died, Sara was taken out of school by her father, who claimed she was being bullied because of her hijab and was struggling to make friends. He claimed that she would be homeschooled instead, but, in reality, this was a cruel plot to better ensure that her injuries were easier to conceal from authorities.
Despite the agony she had endured, brave Sara was still dancing in her final days. During the trial, stepmother Batool wept as her barrister Caroline Carberry, KC, showed footage of the child dancing in the living room as she imitated a video of an alien on the TV, appearing happy and energetic. It’s believed she died just two days later.
Letters and a red notebook seized from the three-bedroom house after Sara’s death showed how, as the end of her short life drew near, she was made to feel as though the cruel punishments inflicted upon her were justified. In one heartbreaking, undated letter to Sharif and Batool, Sara begged her parents for forgiveness, writing that she was “sorry for being rude” and “answering back”. She pleaded, “Please forgive me, I am so, so sorry.”
In a birthday message addressed to Sharif, Sara wrote: “I love you so much. Thank you for looking after us on the weekends. And making food for us at the weekends. THANK YOU, DAD. From Sara…Our family is the best in town. We spread love all around the world.”
Her notebook also contained a short fairy tale about a queen named Beinash, described as the “best caring and loving mother in the world”, and a princess called Sara. Another note read: “Ammi my mum who is beautiful and young. Dad my father who earns money for us so we can eat, sleep and have shelter.”
Giving evidence before the court, Sara’s class teacher described her pupil as a bubbly girl who was in her “happy place” when she was singing or performing. Meanwhile, evidence provided by other members of staff told of how Sara would “shrink into herself” when questioned about her bruises.
This week’s review found that there had been a series of missed opportunities to save Sara, including a council worker going to an old home address just two days before the 10-year-old was killed. It was concluded that, had policies on home education visits been followed, “it is likely that the abuse of Sara would have come to light, or (her) father’s refusal to co-operate would have undoubtedly raised a safeguarding alert”.
In March 2023, Sara’s school raised concerns with Surrey’s Children Services after she arrived with bruising on her face and teachers were given inconsistent explanations for how it had happened. Her normally positive demeanour had also changed, but the report found that this was not sufficiently recognised as a sign that she might be at risk.
Instead, the service decided no further action was needed after speaking to her father and did not hold a formal strategy discussion with other agencies. “Expected robust safeguarding processes were not followed,” the report found. “Information gathering and assessment at this stage did not adequately triangulate information and respond to the presence of bruising alongside inconsistent explanations. Sara’s ‘voice’ expressed through her change in demeanour was not heard.”
England’s children’s commissioner has described Sara’s murder as “preventable”, stating that it occurred after a “catalogue of missed opportunities, poor communication and ill-informed assumptions”.
Dame Rachel de Souza said: “This review rightly recognises our collective outrage – and that it must never happen again. It is a catalogue of missed opportunities, poor communication and ill-informed assumptions, confirming what we always suspected: that the information needed to save Sara was available to the professionals tasked with her protection, but every part of the system lacked the curiosity to piece it together or ask tough questions, relying on the easy lies of her father and stepmother, at whose hands she died.”
Dame Rachel proceeded to add that the country’s “fragmented children’s services need desperate reform, focused on prioritising resources, transformed information sharing and proper, professional accountability”.
She added: “Change is urgent – we are now more than two years on from Sara’s preventable murder and children are still dying.”
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