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Sara Sharif's father has admitted to fatally beating his daughter with a cricket bat and a metal pole, telling the Old Bailey he took "full responsibility" for her death.
In a "dramatic admission", said The Independent, Urfan Sharif changed claims he'd made at earlier court hearings that his wife, Beinash Batool, had inflicted the injuries on Sara while he was at work as a taxi driver. The 10-year-old was found dead in the family home in Woking, Surrey, last August with multiple traumatic injuries, "including human bite marks and iron burns".
In a note left beside Sara's body, Sharif had written, "It's me, Urfan Sharif, who killed my daughter by beating". He also appeared to confess in a call to Surrey Police. In earlier court proceedings, however, he claimed that those admissions were "an attempt to cover up for Batool", The Times reported. But, on Wednesday, he retracted his previous testimony implicating Batool.
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"Do you accept that you killed her by beating her?" asked Batool's barrister, Caroline Carberry KC. "Yes ma'am," he replied.
"I take full responsibility," Sharif told the court, admitting to causing at least 25 fractures by hitting Sara with a cricket bat while she was tied up with packing tape. "Yes, she died because of me." But he has maintained his plea of not guilty to murder, saying he did "not intend to kill" Sara but had inflicted the violence "for discipline".
Sharif, Batool, and Sharif's brother, Faisal Malik, who lived with the family, fled to Islamabad after her death, and were arrested on their return to the UK several weeks later. All three deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child. The trial continues.
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Arion McNicoll is a freelance writer at The Week Digital and was previously the UK website’s editor. He has also held senior editorial roles at CNN, The Times and The Sunday Times. Along with his writing work, he co-hosts “Today in History with The Retrospectors”, Rethink Audio’s flagship daily podcast, and is a regular panellist (and occasional stand-in host) on “The Week Unwrapped”. He is also a judge for The Publisher Podcast Awards.
