SARA ‘MURDER’
Sara Sharif was ‘tied up, bitten & burned with a hot iron’ weeks before dad told cops ‘I’ve killed my daughter’
Police were alerted to Sara's death after a call from Pakistan
SARA Sharif's was tied up, bitten and burned with an iron before her dad told police "I've killed my daughter" in a 999 call, a court heard.
Sara, 10, had suffered "dozens of injuries" after "weeks of horrific violence" before she was found dead at her home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10 last year.
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She is said to have suffered burns from a hot iron and a hot liquid, as well as fractures, bite marks and other bruising.
Some of the fractures found on her were less than ten days old while others were at least six weeks old.
There were also suggestions that she suffered "manual strangulation" over a period of six weeks prior to her death, prosecutors said today.
Her dad Urfan, 42, stepmum Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle Faisal Malik, 28, are standing trial at the Old Bailey charged with her murder.
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Opening the case, prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said Urfan told a 999 operator he had "killed" his daughter after saying "I legally punished her".
He added: "At 2.47am here in the UK a call was made to Surrey Police and the call was the first defendant Urfan Sharif.
"The call to the police lasted eight and a half minutes. In the call Urfan began by asking the operator to take down his address.
"It's difficult to make out what he's saying because it sounds like he's crying.
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"The operator interrupted him and said 'take a deep breath' and tell me what's happened.
"999 operators as I'm sure you can imagine are used to hearing all kinds of dreadful things in 999 calls. But this operator can't have expected the answer he got to his question 'tell me what happened'.
"Urfan's answer was to say 'I have killed my daughter'. He used what you may think is an odd expression. He said 'I legally punished her and she died'."
Mr Emlyn Jones continued: "A little later in the call when asked for more detail, he added 'she was naughty and then I beat her up. It was not my intention to kill her but I beat her up too much'."
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In the 999 call played to jurors, Sharif also told the operator: “My daughter is alone.”
He added: "I’ll come back. I’ll face the death sentence."
The police are said to have gone to the address and found in the upstairs bedroom, on a bottom bunk bed, the body of a little girl lying under the covers.
The prosecutor said it was "as if she was asleep", adding: "But she was not asleep. She was dead."
It is alleged Sara died as a result of third-party involvement.
She was found with "dozens on injuries externally and internally", the court heard.
Mr Emlyn Jones added: "Her treatment in the last few weeks of her life had been appalling. It had been brutal."
A note was found next to her body with Urfan's handwriting, jurors were told.
He said the note read: "It's me, Urfan Sharif who killed my daughter by beating.
"I swear to God it was not my intention to kill her but I lost it.";
It added: "I'm running away because I'm scared."
All three defendants went to Pakistan before alerting authorities, the court heard.
The three defendants were arrested on in September last year at Gatwick Airport as they disembarked a flight from Dubai.
They are also charged with causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16, 2022, and August 9, 2023.
Mr Emlyn Jones summarised the defendants' case by saying they are "pointing the finger at each other", all claiming one of the others were responsible.
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All three deny the offences.
The trial before Mr Justice Cavanagh is expected to go on until December 13.
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