Sara Sharif’s father ‘cursed’ himself for leaving dead daughter ‘like orphan’

Sara Sharif’s father has said he “cursed” himself for fleeing to Pakistan and abandoning his 10-year-old daughter’s body at home “like an orphan”.

Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are on trial at the Old Bailey accused of her murder on August 8 last year.

Sara was found dead in bed at her home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10 2023 after Sharif called police shortly after arriving on a flight to Islamabad.

It would be just over a month before the defendants were detained by police who boarded a plane, minutes after touching down at Gatwick Airport.

On Wednesday, Sharif became emotional as a recording of his call to police was played to the jury in which he said that Sara had died because he “beat her too much”.

Defence barrister Naeem Mian KC asked: “How would you describe your emotional state?”

Sharif said: “I was cursing myself for abandoning my daughter like an orphan and she has no-one else.”

As well as alerting police, he also told members of Batool’s family that he was responsible for Sara’s death and left a note by her body, jurors were told.

Mr Mian said: “Are you responsible for Sara’s death?”

The defendant replied: “No sir, I was not at home.”

Sharif said that he only made the various apparent confessions “to protect my family”.

He repeatedly denied beating Sara up over the course of two years, claiming that Batool was the “crazy” one in the house.

He was challenged about a text message exchange with Batool after Sara cut his shoe laces in February 2022.

In it, he told Batool they were making his life “hell” adding: “I am done with you and now it will be her turn if she does anything silly.”

Mr Mian asked: “Is this message you threatening to beat Sara up?”

Sharif denied it, saying he only wanted to talk to Sara.

In June 2022, Batool told her sister Qandeela on WhatsApp that Sharif suggested using make-up and sunglasses to cover up bruises as a result of his beatings.

Mr Mian said: “Are you able to help us with why Qandeela, having heard Sara has been beaten up so badly, would respond ‘LOL’ – laugh out loud – ‘it was going to happen you can tell’?

Mr Mian asked if Sharif knew why neither of the women called police about it.

Sharif replied: “They should have if I was doing that.”

On other exchanges between the sisters, Sharif said he knew nothing about Sara having to raise her arm and take painkillers in December 2022, or that she had “pood herself” in June 2023, as Batool claimed.

The messages came to an end last August 7 – the day before Sara’s death – when Batool told her sister she was “not in the mood to speak”.

Jurors were shown two video clips that Sharif claimed was evidence of Batool abusing him in 2016 and 2019, even forcing him to jump out of a window.

Asked about the state of their relationship, he said: “It’s never been good.

“We always had issues between me and her and we were only living together because of the family.”

Sharif became tearful as he told jurors: “I used to jump through the kitchen window as she would lock the front door.

“Most of the time when she was angry I jumped through the living room window.”

The first video was made on February 28 2016 after Batool accused him of flirting with a hospital nurse and began “physically abusing” him.

Sharif told jurors: “She kicked me. I ran to the other room, she is standing in front of the door so I cannot leave.”

In second video dated June 26 2019, Sharif was heard to repeatedly ask Batool to “let me go” before jumping out of a window.

Sharif told jurors Batool “slapped” him, adding: “You have a choice either to fight with that person or leave.

“I tried to leave but she locked the front door. I jumped through the kitchen window.”

Asked why he recorded the incidents, Sharif said that he did it “so that she leave me alone” and “stop what she was doing”.

He added that she was “very, very crazy”, did not “care about anything at all”, and her family told him “someone has done black magic on her”.

Sharif told jurors that he had to sit in the car with Sara when Batool visited her family because of his daughter’s mixed heritage.

The defendants, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, have denied murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16 2022 and August 9 2023.

The trial was adjourned until Thursday morning.