Sara Sharif’s father ‘takes full responsibility’ for her death

Sara Sharif’s father has told jurors he “takes full responsibility” for the death of his 10-year-old daughter.

Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, made the admission under cross-examination as his wife Beinash Batool, 30, sobbed in the dock of the Old Bailey on Wednesday.

Previously, Sharif had sought to blame Batool for killing his daughter but in a dramatic admission, told jurors: “I accept every single thing.”

Sara was found dead at the family home in Woking, Surrey, last August 10 after the defendants fled to Pakistan.

She suffered dozens of injuries including human bite marks and iron burns, jurors have heard.

Cross-examining for Batool, Caroline Carberry KC had asked Sharif about a note he left beside the body of his daughter before leaving for Pakistan.

In it he wrote “love you Sara” on the first page followed by the words: “Whoever see this note it’s me Urfan Sharif who killed my daughter by beating.”

Ms Carberry asked if he did indeed kill his daughter by beating and Sharif 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?”

The defendant replied: “Yes.”

Sharif accepted causing the injuries, bar burn and bite marks, and added: “I take responsibility. I take full responsibility.”

He admitted causing fractures to Sara by hitting her with a cricket bat or pole.

Asked if he broke Sara’s hyoid neck bone, he repeated: “I can take full responsibility. I accept every single thing.”

Ms Carberry went on: “I suggest on the night of the 6th August you badly beat Sara.”

Speaking barely above a whisper in the witness box, Sharif replied: “I accept everything.”

Sharif made the shock admissions on the seventh day of his evidence to the jury.

Mr Justice Cavanagh called for a short break before Ms Carberry continued to question the defendant in detail about what exactly he was admitting to.

She said: “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?”

The defendant replied: “Yes ma’am.”

Mr Carberry went on: “Do you accept the post-mortem evidence that those fractures – at least 25 in number – were caused by you during assaults with a weapon?”

She asked what Sara had done, in his mind, to deserve such treatment, saying: “Were you angry with her because in the summer of last year she had started soiling herself? And she had started vomiting, hadn’t she?

“And when you hit her severely and repeatedly with the cricket bat you intended to hurt her, didn’t you? And you knew that by hitting her in the way that you did you weren’t just going to cause a little bruise to her body. You hit her intending to cause her really serious harm.”

The defendant agreed.

Mr Carberry said: “You have pleaded not guilty to the offence of murder. Would you like that charge to be put to you again?”

Sharif replied: “Yeah.”

His barrister Naeem Mian KC then stood up and asked for time to speak to Sharif.

Mr Justice Cavanagh sent the jury away adjourned the case until 12.30pm.

After the lunchbreak, Sharif refused to accept he was guilty of Sara’s murder, saying he “did not intend to kill her”.

Ms Carberry asked: “When you confirmed earlier today you beat her to death and you intended to cause her really serious harm that was an admission to the offence of murder.”

What did you intend when you took a cricket bat to a 10-year-old girl?

Sharif said: “I did not want to hurt her. I didn’t want to harm her.”

The defence barrister responded: “But you did harm her. What did you intend when you took a cricket bat to a 10-year-old girl?”

The defendant said: “I did wrong. I didn’t think anything.”

Ms Carberry asked: “Do you accept that you killed her?”

Sobbing, Sharif said: “She died because of me. I didn’t want to kill her.”

Previously, Sharif had put the blame on Batool and claimed that he was out of the house working in his taxi when the abuse was going on.

Earlier in the week, Ms Carberry told him: “You are a lying, manipulative and controlling man, aren’t you?”

Sharif replied: “No, I am not.”

Sharif, Batool, and Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, deny Sara’s murder and causing or allowing her death.