BRUTAL END
Sara Sharif’s dad says ‘I take full responsibility’ after daughter, 10, ‘tortured to death in two-year horror campaign’
Schoolgirl was hooded, burned, bitten and beaten, court told
SARA Sharif's dad today said "I take full responsibility" after his daughter was allegedly tortured to death in a horror campaign.
The ten-year-old was hooded, burned, bitten and beaten during more than two years of abuse, jurors heard.
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She had suffered at least 71 external injuries when she was found dead at home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10 last year.
Her dad Urfan Sharif, 42, his wife Beinash Batool, 30, and brother Faisal Malik, 29, deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
Giving evidence at the Old Bailey today, Sharif told jurors: "I accept every single thing".
But he later claimed he did not mean to "harm" Sara when he bound and beat her with a cricket bat.
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His wife Batool, who the dad had previously sought to blame for killing his daughter, wept during the dramatic admission.
Her lawyer Caroline Carberry KC asked Sharif if he intended to kill Sara, to which he replied: "
Yes, she died because of me."
The barrister said: "In the weeks before she died she suffered multiple fractures to her body, didn't she, and it was you who inflicted those injuries?"
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The defendant replied: "Yes."
Sharif accepted causing a string of injuries but not burn and bite marks on his daughter.
He also admitted causing fractures - including to her neck bone - by hitting Sara with a cricket bat.
The dad added: "I take responsibility. I take full responsibility."
Ms Carberry continued: "Do you accept that you killed her by beating her? Do you accept you had been beating Sara severely over a number of weeks?
"Do you accept using the cricket bat to beat her. Do you accept using the cricket bat as a weapon on her on a number of occasions? Do you accept that you used that cricket bat on her with force?"
Sharif replied: "Yes ma'am."
Jurors heard previously how Sharif dished out brutal punishments to his daughter during the alleged campaign of abuse.
Text messages from stepmum Batool described Sharif as a "psycho” who “beat the crap out of Sara”.
She also claimed to her sister that she was made to cover up Sara’s bruises with makeup and sunglasses, jurors heard.
Describing one alleged incident, Batool wrote: "Why the hell am I ever letting him in the house. I feel really sorry for Sara, poor girl can’t walk, she literally fainted in the kitchen in the morning, he made her do sit ups all night.
"It’s been so crazy man, you don’t even understand.”
Sharif, Batool and Malik are accused of carrying out a violent two-year “campaign of abuse” before killing her.
Jurors heard previously how Sara "suffered dreadfully” and was burned with an iron, bitten and had a bag taped over head before she was found dead.
The schoolgirl was allegedly made to wear a hijab to conceal her injuries, which neighbours found "unusual" as she was the only family member to wear one.
Sharif, Batool and Malik fled to Pakistan the day after Sara died on August 8, the court was told.
Sharif then called police to say he had beaten Sara “too much” as a punishment for being naughty.
The cabbie had also left a note by his daughter's body that read: "I swear to God that my intention was not to kill her. But I lost it.”
Officers also discovered a cricket bat stained with Sarah’s blood, a rolling pin with her DNA and black rope with her hair attached to it.
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The defendants have pleaded not guilty to murder and to causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16, 2022, and August 9, 2023.
The trial continues.
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