Father and stepmother of Sara Sharif, a 10-year-old British-Pakistani girl who was found dead in her home in August last year after suffering years of torture, has been sentenced to life for killing the daughter by a UK court.
Sara’s 43-year-old father, Urfan Sharif, and 30-year-old stepmother, Beinash Batool, were found guilty last week following a 10-week trial at the Old Bailey in London.
Sara was just 10 when she was found dead in her bed in August 2023, her body covered in bites and bruises, with broken bones and burn marks.
A post-mortem revealed she had more than 100 injuries, and at least 25 broken bones.
Her father Urfan admitted beating her with a cricket bat, as she was bound by packaging tape in the weeks before her death. He also throttled her with his bare hands, breaking the hyoid bone in her neck.
Her 29-year-old uncle Faisal Malik, was found guilty of causing or allowing her death.
The day after Sara died, the three adults had fled their home in Woking, southwest of London, flying to Pakistan with five other children.
Her father, a taxi-driver, phoned the police on the way to the airport to report Sara’s death, and left behind a handwritten note saying he had not meant to kill his daughter “but I lost it”.
This is a developing story and is being updated with more details.
