WhatsApp messages reveal horrific abuse of Sara Sharif missed by social services
From the moment she was born, social services knew that Sara Sharif was in danger of being harmed by the man who was supposed to protect her.
Urfan Sharif, her father, had a lengthy history of domestic abuse allegations and prosecutors said that in his household “violence had become completely normalised”.
There were also accusations of abuse against Sara’s mother, Olga Domin. She was said to have learning difficulties and deemed to be “vulnerable”.
Authorities were alerted to Sharif’s violent behaviour or saw visible signs of injuries on children in his care on dozens of occasions before her death.
A family court case even granted Sharif and his wife, Beinash Batool, custody of Sara despite knowing he had been accused of abusing her siblings for years.
In an attempt to hide the extent of the abuse to which Sara was being subjected, he forced her to wear a hijab to cover bruises and took her out of school when her injuries were too severe.
The only real glimpse inside the family home came from WhatsApp messages sent by Batool, Sara’s stepmother, to her sister.
In them, she provided a snapshot of the daily beatings, punishments and violence that took place in Sharif’s house.
A history of violence Sharif was reported to Surrey Police by three separate women who made serious accusations of abuse, including claims of assault and false imprisonment, before Sara was born.
Surrey county council was also aware that children in his care had accused him of hitting and slapping them.
As a result, on the day she was born, Jan 11 2013, Sara was immediately placed on a child protection plan, a set of measures aimed at ensuring her safety.
She later spent time in foster care and for years she had only supervised contact with the man who would go on to murder her.
One social worker who was present during these supervised visits said that whenever Sharif went near his daughter, she shouted at him to “go away”. Another described him as seeming to have “no empathy”.
Despite these concerns, in 2019 the family court in Guildford awarded custody of Sara to her father. The decision went in his favour after he filmed her making allegations of neglect and abuse against her mother. Ms Domin supported Sara being looked after by her father.
The positive influence of Sharif’s new partner, Batool, was also a factor.
The judge handed him custody despite social services’ extensive involvement with the family, court documents reveal.
Social services first became involved after Sharif was arrested on suspicion of assaulting Ms Domin and a baby in 2010.
Police who visited the family home over 2011 and 2012 reported some concerns, including that the children were not being supervised adequately, were being abused emotionally and the house was dirty.
In February 2013, social services were called after one of her siblings told a teacher their father had been slapping them.
In May 2013, a sibling was seen with a burn mark on his leg and forehead, which appeared to have been caused by an iron in the family home. An investigation was carried out and it was concluded that the burn happened accidentally.
In July 2015, social workers noted that both Sara and a sibling had scars potentially consistent with cigarette burns. Ms Domin and Sharif said they were chickenpox scars.
Sara was also reported to be exhibiting some “disturbed behaviour”, which included standing facing a wall, and was said to be fearful of returning to her parents.
A ‘spirited, bold, and fierce little girl’ Five years after the family court case, Sharif and Batool were found guilty of murder following an eight week trial at the Old Bailey on Dec 11. The pair are expected to be sentenced today.
Faisal Malik, Sara’s uncle and Sharif’s brother, was found guilty of causing or allowing her death. He was found not guilty of her murder.
Sara was described as a “bubbly” child whose “happy place” was performing on stage in musicals and plays. She was said to be “spirited, bold, and fierce”.
Caroline Carberry KC, defending Batool, said: “No doubt that spirit, that boldness from his daughter was what Sharif tried to silence with his beating, control, cruel punishment and degrading treatment of her.”
In an undated letter shown in court, Sara had written an apology saying she was “sorry for being rude”. She ended the letter by saying “please forgive me I am so, so sorry”.
In her notebook, there was a message in which Sara described Batool as the “best caring and loving mother in the world”.
Another passage read: “Ammi my mum who is beautiful and young. Dad my father who earns money for us so we can eat, sleep and have shelter.”
In her police interview, Batool was asked by police whether she loved or cared about Sara.
She showed no emotion and simply replied: “no comment”.
An unassuming house of horror Sara had more than 70 injuries when she was discovered on a bunk bed in the semi-detached family home in Woking, Surrey, aged 10 years old on Aug 10 2023.
Just four months earlier, Sharif, Batool, 30, Malik, 29, Sara and her five siblings had moved to the suburban property from a small flat in nearby West Byfleet. The new home in a quiet area was bigger and had a private garden, but struggled to accommodate a family of that size.
During the eight-week trial, members of the jury were seen in tears repeatedly as the harrowing details of Sara’s life were revealed.
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC told jurors Sara was subjected to a “campaign of abuse” including a sustained six-week period of intense violence before she died.
He said it was “inconceivable” that anyone living in the Sharif household would have been able to abuse Sara to such an extent alone. The horrors inflicted on her, he said, required the “complicity, participation, assistance and encouragement of others”.
Before her death, Sara was burned on her buttocks with an iron and had a “makeshift hood” placed over her head.
She was regularly punished by being beaten with household objects including a cricket bat. As her health deteriorated from the intensity of the beatings, Sharif forced her to wear a nappy. When she started being sick, her father beat her with a metal pole.
There was evidence her feet were plunged into buckets of boiling water. She had bite marks on her skin allegedly caused by Batool. There was also evidence she had been tied to a hot pipe with packing tape and beaten.
Police image of a white pole found in the house During the trial, in the fourth week, it seemed the jury had finally heard the worst of the abuses she suffered. Then Emlyn Jones, while cross-examining Sharif, asked him about a jet wash.
He said it was found in the garden alongside her soaking wet leggings, towels, a nappy and the homemade hoods. It appeared that after she was killed, Sara was stripped naked, taken outside into the garden and cleaned with the hose.
At the Old Bailey, Sharif initially tried to deny responsibility for his daughter’s death, insisting that he worked long hours as a taxi driver and was rarely at home.
He claimed Batool would blame Sara for “everything” that went wrong in the house and told him bruises on her face were caused by her siblings.
While giving evidence for the seventh day, however, he dramatically took responsibility for her death while under cross-examination by Ms Carberry. “I take full responsibility,” he whispered, before admitting beating his daughter to death with a cricket bat and a metal pole.
The court had previously been shown a video of Sara dancing on Aug 6 2023. Sharif said that shortly after that he had launched the fatal assault with the bat. Batool and Malik both declined to give evidence.
‘She can’t walk’: The WhatsApp messages While Sara’s grandfather lived thousands of miles away, there is no doubt that in England numerous people had at least some idea of what was happening to Sara.
Knowledge of Sara’s abuse was not limited to those in the Sharif household but nobody ever raised the alarm.
On Dec 21 2020, Batool told her sister, Qandeela Saboohi, that she “literally had to push Urfan out of the way” to save Sara from yet another beating.
Over the next three-and-a-half years she regularly messaged her sister about the abuse Sara was suffering at the hands of her father.
The WhatsApp exchanges provide the only real glimpse into the home where Sara was being subjected to ever-escalating levels of violence.
On May 8 2021, Batool told her sister that Sharif was “beating Sara like crazy” and was “literally going to break her arm or her leg”.
She claimed she had “no idea what to do”. She said that after the beating, he punished her by forcing her to stand in a room with her hands in the air.
The next day she told her sister she “really wanted to report” her husband because if anyone found out about the beatings, “I’ll lose all the kids”.
The court heard her sister responded: “Why doesn’t [Sara] learn?”
Batool replied: “Why the **** doesn’t Urfan learn? She is covered in bruises, literally beaten black.”
She added: “I feel really sorry for Sara, poor girl can’t walk. She literally fainted in the kitchen this morning. He made her do sit-ups all night. It’s been so crazy man you don’t understand.”
When asked why Sharif had punished Sara, Batool replied: “Because she hid the keys.”
Just under a year later, on Feb 11 2022, Batool told her sister Sharif had woken Sara up at 1.30am to beat her because he “got randomly angry”.
None of the three defendants brought their phones back from Pakistan. Mr Emlyn Jones said they would have contained a “treasure trove” of messages, photos and videos detailing “months, years of punishment”.
Sara’s family Sara’s mother did not attend court and no other relatives were present at any point during the trial.
Muhammad Sharif, Sara’s paternal grandfather, claimed to have spoken to the 10 year-old on the day she is believed to have died, Aug 8 2023, and said she “sounded perfectly fine”. He sought to place the blame for Sara’s death solely on the shoulders of Batool, as his son did in court.
After the trial began and the evidence was heard, Muhammad said it was a “surprise” to find out how badly she had been abused. Speaking from Jhelum, Pakistan, he told The Telegraph: “I can’t imagine she was as brutally beaten as revealed in the trial findings.”
Muhammad claimed that Sara was “devoutly Islamic” and she “regularly performed her prayers”. He also repeated his son’s claim that Sara faced bullying in school because of her choice to wear a hijab. “It happens in Western societies,” he added.
The family’s neighbours Neighbours who gave evidence during the trial described hearing “constant screaming and banging” coming from the family home.
Rebecca Spencer, who lived in a flat above the family in West Byfleet for two years, said she would regularly hear shouting, smacking and the rattling of locked doors. She said she often heard Batool “almost hysterical, screaming” at the children.
Despite that, the family were not reported to the council, social services or the police.
On Aug 6 2023, the day Sharif beat his daughter to near death with a cricket bat, a neighbour told detectives she heard a girl scream in pain.
Fiona Mellon, whose property backs onto the Sharif home, said she heard “one scream for a couple of seconds, which then stopped suddenly”.
She added: “It sounded like someone in pain and it was so out of the ordinary that I wondered if I should call someone, like the police.”
When she heard nothing else, she decided not to.
How Sara’s school and social services failed her In June 2022, Batool told her sister that Sharif had become panicked after being called into a meeting with Sara’s school. Sharif was summoned because Sara was seen with a bruise under her left eye on June 6.
The incident was recorded on the school’s internal Child Protection Online Monitoring System.
Sara claimed it had been caused by a younger sibling and it was the second time it had happened, an explanation apparently accepted by her teachers.
No referral was made to social services and they were not made aware of the incident.
Helen Simmons, Sara’s teacher, said the school received an email stating that she was to be homeschooled a week later. She said that it was a “cause for concern”, claiming it was “very out of the blue”.
On June 20, Jacquie Chambers, the headteacher, and Mrs Simmons met with Batool and Sharif.
The couple claimed to be worried about Sara’s progress at the school and her lack of friendships, the court heard.
Sara then returned for the beginning of the next school year in September 2022.
By January 2023, Sara had started wearing a hijab. For the last eight months of her life she was forced to wear one whenever she went outside because the bruises on her head and face had become too noticeable.
The Telegraph understands that despite Sara previously being seen with bruises, no one raised this change in her appearance with social services.
Mrs Simmons said she noticed bruises on Sara’s face on two subsequent occasions on March 10 and 28 2023. The first time she tried to ask the schoolgirl what had happened, “she became quite coy”.
Mrs Simmons said Sara used the hijab to try to cover her face, before claiming she fell over on some roller skates.
The school then arranged for a designated safeguarding lead to speak to Sara. When they did so, the schoolgirl gave a different version of events, claiming her brother caused the bruises.
The Telegraph understands that the school contacted Batool by phone, and she said Sara had got one of the bruises from roller skating and another while playing with her brother.
The school said they believed this corroborated Sara’s version of events.
The council conducted checks on Sara, including her medical history, and spoke to Sharif, who said he had nothing to hide and also corroborated her version of events. It is understood that the case was then closed, with a note to “monitor the situation”.
On March 17, Fatima Choudhry, who worked at the school and is from Pakistan, told jurors that she had made an entry in the school computer system after hearing Batool swear in Punjabi and Urdu.
It is understood that a meeting was held with the parents on March 20 by teachers, but social services were not informed.
A few weeks later, on March 28, Sara was again seen with a mark on her face.
Mrs Simmons said that she was made aware of that bruise by Batool herself who “marched towards me” and insisted “before you jump to conclusions again it was just a pen that caused it”.
The school recorded the bruise as being consistent with a pen mark.
On April 17, the first day back after the Easter holidays, Sharif emailed the school informing them he would be homeschooling Sara from then on.
It is understood teachers at the school contacted the social services safeguarding team and were told that if they had concerns, they should make a referral. This did not happen.
Despite the move coming just a month after the initial social services referral, no one from the council or the school visited the family home in person.
Less than four months later, Sara was dead.
A “rapid review” was reportedly carried out in the immediate aftermath of her killing. It is understood that this did not “determine or highlight” any breaking of practice.
Joanna Killian, the chief executive of SCC at the time, stepped down from the £234,000-a-year role seven months after Sara died. She is now working as the chief executive of the Local Government Association.
Rachael Wardell, the executive director for children, families and lifelong learning at Surrey County council, said Sara’s death was “incredibly distressing”.
She said the council felt “profound horror” at the details that emerged during the trial, adding: “We cannot begin to comprehend the suffering that poor Sara endured at the hands of members of her family who should have loved, protected, and cared for her.”
Ms Wardell continued: “The focus of the trial has been on the evidence needed to secure the convictions of those responsible for Sara’s death. This means that, until the independent safeguarding review concludes, a complete picture cannot be understood or commented upon.
“What is clear from the evidence we’ve heard in court is that the perpetrators went to extreme lengths to conceal the truth from everyone.
“We are resolute in our commitment to protecting children, and we are determined to play a full and active part in the forthcoming review alongside partner agencies, to thoroughly understand the wider circumstances surrounding Sara’s tragic death.”
Flight to Pakistan Three days later on Aug 9, after Sara’s death, her father, stepmother and uncle fled the country with her remaining siblings and travelled to Pakistan.
After landing in Islamabad on Aug 10, Sharif called police in the UK and confessed to murdering his daughter.
He told the 999 operator he had “legally punished her for being naughty” and “she died”.
On Sept 13 last year, police received information that Sharif, Batool and Malik would be arriving at Gatwick on a flight from Dubai that evening.
Body-worn camera footage, played in court, showed the moment they were arrested.
As the officers approach, Batool raises her hand and says: “I think you’re looking for us.”
Rasikh Munir, a relative of Sharif, said he sheltered the family while the Pakistani authorities hunted for them.
Despite multiple raids on his property, he told the BBC they failed to find them.
He said he believed Sharif was innocent and that he had taken the family in to protect the children.
He said the family had hidden in cornfields when police raided his home at night and he had driven them around the local area, buying ice creams and even visiting hairdressers while detectives searched for them.
WhatsApp messages reveal horrific abuse of Sara Sharif missed by social services
From the moment she was born, social services knew that Sara Sharif was in danger of being harmed by the man who was supposed to protect her.
Urfan Sharif, her father, had a lengthy history of domestic abuse allegations and prosecutors said that in his household “violence had become completely normalised”.
There were also accusations of abuse against Sara’s mother, Olga Domin. She was said to have learning difficulties and deemed to be “vulnerable”.
Authorities were alerted to Sharif’s violent behaviour or saw visible signs of injuries on children in his care on dozens of occasions before her death.
A family court case even granted Sharif and his wife, Beinash Batool, custody of Sara despite knowing he had been accused of abusing her siblings for years.
In an attempt to hide the extent of the abuse to which Sara was being subjected, he forced her to wear a hijab to cover bruises and took her out of school when her injuries were too severe.
The only real glimpse inside the family home came from WhatsApp messages sent by Batool, Sara’s stepmother, to her sister.
In them, she provided a snapshot of the daily beatings, punishments and violence that took place in Sharif’s house.
A history of violence Sharif was reported to Surrey Police by three separate women who made serious accusations of abuse, including claims of assault and false imprisonment, before Sara was born.
Surrey county council was also aware that children in his care had accused him of hitting and slapping them.
As a result, on the day she was born, Jan 11 2013, Sara was immediately placed on a child protection plan, a set of measures aimed at ensuring her safety.
She later spent time in foster care and for years she had only supervised contact with the man who would go on to murder her.
One social worker who was present during these supervised visits said that whenever Sharif went near his daughter, she shouted at him to “go away”. Another described him as seeming to have “no empathy”.
Despite these concerns, in 2019 the family court in Guildford awarded custody of Sara to her father. The decision went in his favour after he filmed her making allegations of neglect and abuse against her mother. Ms Domin supported Sara being looked after by her father.
The positive influence of Sharif’s new partner, Batool, was also a factor.
The judge handed him custody despite social services’ extensive involvement with the family, court documents reveal.
Social services first became involved after Sharif was arrested on suspicion of assaulting Ms Domin and a baby in 2010.
Police who visited the family home over 2011 and 2012 reported some concerns, including that the children were not being supervised adequately, were being abused emotionally and the house was dirty.
In February 2013, social services were called after one of her siblings told a teacher their father had been slapping them.
In May 2013, a sibling was seen with a burn mark on his leg and forehead, which appeared to have been caused by an iron in the family home. An investigation was carried out and it was concluded that the burn happened accidentally.
In July 2015, social workers noted that both Sara and a sibling had scars potentially consistent with cigarette burns. Ms Domin and Sharif said they were chickenpox scars.
Sara was also reported to be exhibiting some “disturbed behaviour”, which included standing facing a wall, and was said to be fearful of returning to her parents.
A ‘spirited, bold, and fierce little girl’ Five years after the family court case, Sharif and Batool were found guilty of murder following an eight week trial at the Old Bailey on Dec 11. The pair are expected to be sentenced today.
Faisal Malik, Sara’s uncle and Sharif’s brother, was found guilty of causing or allowing her death. He was found not guilty of her murder.
Sara was described as a “bubbly” child whose “happy place” was performing on stage in musicals and plays. She was said to be “spirited, bold, and fierce”.
Caroline Carberry KC, defending Batool, said: “No doubt that spirit, that boldness from his daughter was what Sharif tried to silence with his beating, control, cruel punishment and degrading treatment of her.”
In an undated letter shown in court, Sara had written an apology saying she was “sorry for being rude”. She ended the letter by saying “please forgive me I am so, so sorry”.
In her notebook, there was a message in which Sara described Batool as the “best caring and loving mother in the world”.
Another passage read: “Ammi my mum who is beautiful and young. Dad my father who earns money for us so we can eat, sleep and have shelter.”
In her police interview, Batool was asked by police whether she loved or cared about Sara.
She showed no emotion and simply replied: “no comment”.
An unassuming house of horror Sara had more than 70 injuries when she was discovered on a bunk bed in the semi-detached family home in Woking, Surrey, aged 10 years old on Aug 10 2023.
Just four months earlier, Sharif, Batool, 30, Malik, 29, Sara and her five siblings had moved to the suburban property from a small flat in nearby West Byfleet. The new home in a quiet area was bigger and had a private garden, but struggled to accommodate a family of that size.
During the eight-week trial, members of the jury were seen in tears repeatedly as the harrowing details of Sara’s life were revealed.
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC told jurors Sara was subjected to a “campaign of abuse” including a sustained six-week period of intense violence before she died.
He said it was “inconceivable” that anyone living in the Sharif household would have been able to abuse Sara to such an extent alone. The horrors inflicted on her, he said, required the “complicity, participation, assistance and encouragement of others”.
Before her death, Sara was burned on her buttocks with an iron and had a “makeshift hood” placed over her head.
She was regularly punished by being beaten with household objects including a cricket bat. As her health deteriorated from the intensity of the beatings, Sharif forced her to wear a nappy. When she started being sick, her father beat her with a metal pole.
There was evidence her feet were plunged into buckets of boiling water. She had bite marks on her skin allegedly caused by Batool. There was also evidence she had been tied to a hot pipe with packing tape and beaten.
Police image of a white pole found in the house During the trial, in the fourth week, it seemed the jury had finally heard the worst of the abuses she suffered. Then Emlyn Jones, while cross-examining Sharif, asked him about a jet wash.
He said it was found in the garden alongside her soaking wet leggings, towels, a nappy and the homemade hoods. It appeared that after she was killed, Sara was stripped naked, taken outside into the garden and cleaned with the hose.
At the Old Bailey, Sharif initially tried to deny responsibility for his daughter’s death, insisting that he worked long hours as a taxi driver and was rarely at home.
He claimed Batool would blame Sara for “everything” that went wrong in the house and told him bruises on her face were caused by her siblings.
While giving evidence for the seventh day, however, he dramatically took responsibility for her death while under cross-examination by Ms Carberry. “I take full responsibility,” he whispered, before admitting beating his daughter to death with a cricket bat and a metal pole.
The court had previously been shown a video of Sara dancing on Aug 6 2023. Sharif said that shortly after that he had launched the fatal assault with the bat. Batool and Malik both declined to give evidence.
‘She can’t walk’: The WhatsApp messages While Sara’s grandfather lived thousands of miles away, there is no doubt that in England numerous people had at least some idea of what was happening to Sara.
Knowledge of Sara’s abuse was not limited to those in the Sharif household but nobody ever raised the alarm.
On Dec 21 2020, Batool told her sister, Qandeela Saboohi, that she “literally had to push Urfan out of the way” to save Sara from yet another beating.
Over the next three-and-a-half years she regularly messaged her sister about the abuse Sara was suffering at the hands of her father.
The WhatsApp exchanges provide the only real glimpse into the home where Sara was being subjected to ever-escalating levels of violence.
On May 8 2021, Batool told her sister that Sharif was “beating Sara like crazy” and was “literally going to break her arm or her leg”.
She claimed she had “no idea what to do”. She said that after the beating, he punished her by forcing her to stand in a room with her hands in the air.
The next day she told her sister she “really wanted to report” her husband because if anyone found out about the beatings, “I’ll lose all the kids”.
The court heard her sister responded: “Why doesn’t [Sara] learn?”
Batool replied: “Why the **** doesn’t Urfan learn? She is covered in bruises, literally beaten black.”
She added: “I feel really sorry for Sara, poor girl can’t walk. She literally fainted in the kitchen this morning. He made her do sit-ups all night. It’s been so crazy man you don’t understand.”
When asked why Sharif had punished Sara, Batool replied: “Because she hid the keys.”
Just under a year later, on Feb 11 2022, Batool told her sister Sharif had woken Sara up at 1.30am to beat her because he “got randomly angry”.
None of the three defendants brought their phones back from Pakistan. Mr Emlyn Jones said they would have contained a “treasure trove” of messages, photos and videos detailing “months, years of punishment”.
Sara’s family Sara’s mother did not attend court and no other relatives were present at any point during the trial.
Muhammad Sharif, Sara’s paternal grandfather, claimed to have spoken to the 10 year-old on the day she is believed to have died, Aug 8 2023, and said she “sounded perfectly fine”. He sought to place the blame for Sara’s death solely on the shoulders of Batool, as his son did in court.
After the trial began and the evidence was heard, Muhammad said it was a “surprise” to find out how badly she had been abused. Speaking from Jhelum, Pakistan, he told The Telegraph: “I can’t imagine she was as brutally beaten as revealed in the trial findings.”
Muhammad claimed that Sara was “devoutly Islamic” and she “regularly performed her prayers”. He also repeated his son’s claim that Sara faced bullying in school because of her choice to wear a hijab. “It happens in Western societies,” he added.
The family’s neighbours Neighbours who gave evidence during the trial described hearing “constant screaming and banging” coming from the family home.
Rebecca Spencer, who lived in a flat above the family in West Byfleet for two years, said she would regularly hear shouting, smacking and the rattling of locked doors. She said she often heard Batool “almost hysterical, screaming” at the children.
Despite that, the family were not reported to the council, social services or the police.
On Aug 6 2023, the day Sharif beat his daughter to near death with a cricket bat, a neighbour told detectives she heard a girl scream in pain.
Fiona Mellon, whose property backs onto the Sharif home, said she heard “one scream for a couple of seconds, which then stopped suddenly”.
She added: “It sounded like someone in pain and it was so out of the ordinary that I wondered if I should call someone, like the police.”
When she heard nothing else, she decided not to.
How Sara’s school and social services failed her In June 2022, Batool told her sister that Sharif had become panicked after being called into a meeting with Sara’s school. Sharif was summoned because Sara was seen with a bruise under her left eye on June 6.
The incident was recorded on the school’s internal Child Protection Online Monitoring System.
Sara claimed it had been caused by a younger sibling and it was the second time it had happened, an explanation apparently accepted by her teachers.
No referral was made to social services and they were not made aware of the incident.
Helen Simmons, Sara’s teacher, said the school received an email stating that she was to be homeschooled a week later. She said that it was a “cause for concern”, claiming it was “very out of the blue”.
On June 20, Jacquie Chambers, the headteacher, and Mrs Simmons met with Batool and Sharif.
The couple claimed to be worried about Sara’s progress at the school and her lack of friendships, the court heard.
Sara then returned for the beginning of the next school year in September 2022.
By January 2023, Sara had started wearing a hijab. For the last eight months of her life she was forced to wear one whenever she went outside because the bruises on her head and face had become too noticeable.
The Telegraph understands that despite Sara previously being seen with bruises, no one raised this change in her appearance with social services.
Mrs Simmons said she noticed bruises on Sara’s face on two subsequent occasions on March 10 and 28 2023. The first time she tried to ask the schoolgirl what had happened, “she became quite coy”.
Mrs Simmons said Sara used the hijab to try to cover her face, before claiming she fell over on some roller skates.
The school then arranged for a designated safeguarding lead to speak to Sara. When they did so, the schoolgirl gave a different version of events, claiming her brother caused the bruises.
The Telegraph understands that the school contacted Batool by phone, and she said Sara had got one of the bruises from roller skating and another while playing with her brother.
The school said they believed this corroborated Sara’s version of events.
The council conducted checks on Sara, including her medical history, and spoke to Sharif, who said he had nothing to hide and also corroborated her version of events. It is understood that the case was then closed, with a note to “monitor the situation”.
On March 17, Fatima Choudhry, who worked at the school and is from Pakistan, told jurors that she had made an entry in the school computer system after hearing Batool swear in Punjabi and Urdu.
It is understood that a meeting was held with the parents on March 20 by teachers, but social services were not informed.
A few weeks later, on March 28, Sara was again seen with a mark on her face.
Mrs Simmons said that she was made aware of that bruise by Batool herself who “marched towards me” and insisted “before you jump to conclusions again it was just a pen that caused it”.
The school recorded the bruise as being consistent with a pen mark.
On April 17, the first day back after the Easter holidays, Sharif emailed the school informing them he would be homeschooling Sara from then on.
It is understood teachers at the school contacted the social services safeguarding team and were told that if they had concerns, they should make a referral. This did not happen.
Despite the move coming just a month after the initial social services referral, no one from the council or the school visited the family home in person.
Less than four months later, Sara was dead.
A “rapid review” was reportedly carried out in the immediate aftermath of her killing. It is understood that this did not “determine or highlight” any breaking of practice.
Joanna Killian, the chief executive of SCC at the time, stepped down from the £234,000-a-year role seven months after Sara died. She is now working as the chief executive of the Local Government Association.
Rachael Wardell, the executive director for children, families and lifelong learning at Surrey County council, said Sara’s death was “incredibly distressing”.
She said the council felt “profound horror” at the details that emerged during the trial, adding: “We cannot begin to comprehend the suffering that poor Sara endured at the hands of members of her family who should have loved, protected, and cared for her.”
Ms Wardell continued: “The focus of the trial has been on the evidence needed to secure the convictions of those responsible for Sara’s death. This means that, until the independent safeguarding review concludes, a complete picture cannot be understood or commented upon.
“What is clear from the evidence we’ve heard in court is that the perpetrators went to extreme lengths to conceal the truth from everyone.
“We are resolute in our commitment to protecting children, and we are determined to play a full and active part in the forthcoming review alongside partner agencies, to thoroughly understand the wider circumstances surrounding Sara’s tragic death.”
Flight to Pakistan Three days later on Aug 9, after Sara’s death, her father, stepmother and uncle fled the country with her remaining siblings and travelled to Pakistan.
After landing in Islamabad on Aug 10, Sharif called police in the UK and confessed to murdering his daughter.
He told the 999 operator he had “legally punished her for being naughty” and “she died”.
On Sept 13 last year, police received information that Sharif, Batool and Malik would be arriving at Gatwick on a flight from Dubai that evening.
Body-worn camera footage, played in court, showed the moment they were arrested.
As the officers approach, Batool raises her hand and says: “I think you’re looking for us.”
Rasikh Munir, a relative of Sharif, said he sheltered the family while the Pakistani authorities hunted for them.
Despite multiple raids on his property, he told the BBC they failed to find them.
He said he believed Sharif was innocent and that he had taken the family in to protect the children.
He said the family had hidden in cornfields when police raided his home at night and he had driven them around the local area, buying ice creams and even visiting hairdressers while detectives searched for them.
What happened to Sara Sharif as father and stepmother jailed for life?
The father and stepmother of Sara Sharif have been jailed for life for killing the 10-year-old girl after years of "almost inconceivable" abuse.
Urfan Sharif, 42, and Beinash Batool, 30, were found guilty of Sara's murder last week following a trial at the Old Bailey. Her uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, who lived with them, was convicted of causing or allowing her death.
At their sentencing on Tuesday, Urfan Sharif was given a minimum term of 40 years, while Beinash Batool was handed a minimum term of 33 years. Malik, who was convicted of causing or allowing Sara's death, was jailed for 16 years.
In a victim statement read out in court, Sara sharif's mother Olga Sharif described them as "executioners", while a judge said Sara's death was a “culmination of years of neglect”, “frequent assault” and “torture” for none of them had shown "a shred of remorse".
I've not read too many details of this case as I don't like reading about things like that but I happened to have the judges sentence delivery on sky news when it was delivered. To actually hear what that child went through was abhorrent and a very hard watch but I thought I owed it to that poor girl to actually listen to it all. The abuse and pain she suffered at the hands of those scum in those four years I can't even begin to imagine. To me Sara Sharif should somehow become a focus of child abuse, not only in this country but worldwide, to at least let some good come out of this appalling case.
On a separate note, if the death or even better still the punishment/revenge act comes back, I'm more than happy to stand up and perform the job and not wear a mask as in the olden days.
On a separate note, if the death or even better still the punishment/revenge act comes back, I'm more than happy to stand up and perform the job and not wear a mask as in the olden days.
I'd like to be at the front of the queue to administer the punishment, the death penalty really is too good for these scum. They should be slowly beaten to death over a period of weeks in the same way they killed that poor girl. Hopefully someone in prison will get to them, if they do they should get a medal.
On a separate note, if the death or even better still the punishment/revenge act comes back, I'm more than happy to stand up and perform the job and not wear a mask as in the olden days.
I'd like to be at the front of the queue to administer the punishment, the death penalty really is too good for these scum. They should be slowly beaten to death over a period of weeks in the same way they killed that poor girl. Hopefully someone in prison will get to them, if they do they should get a medal.
I am certain that they will not be very popular in prison.
It would be superb if we could finally put a system in place that actually worked. She was let down by a number of authorities which surely amount to negligence. She had been under police protection. She had been in foster care. There werre 3 family court cases involving Sara. The police, and social services were aware of reports of abuse by her family, before she was even born. I think her teachers, and school did their bit. Why would anyone think that giving parents the right to home school their children as being at all reasonable. The poor girl was badly let down by almost everyone that she came into contact with.
As a result, on the day she was born, Jan 11 2013, Sara was immediately placed on a child protection plan, a set of measures aimed at ensuring her safety.
She later spent time in foster care and for years she had only supervised contact with the man who would go on to murder her.
One social worker who was present during these supervised visits said that whenever Sharif went near his daughter, she shouted at him to “go away”. Another described him as seeming to have “no empathy”.
Despite these concerns, in 2019 the family court in Guildford awarded custody of Sara to her father. The decision went in his favour after he filmed her making allegations of neglect and abuse against her mother. Ms Domin supported Sara being looked after by her father.
The positive influence of Sharif’s new partner, Batool, was also a factor.
The judge handed him custody despite social services’ extensive involvement with the family, court documents reveal.
Social services first became involved after Sharif was arrested on suspicion of assaulting Ms Domin and a baby in 2010.
Police who visited the family home over 2011 and 2012 reported some concerns, including that the children were not being supervised adequately, were being abused emotionally and the house was dirty.
In February 2013, social services were called after one of her siblings told a teacher their father had been slapping them.
In May 2013, a sibling was seen with a burn mark on his leg and forehead, which appeared to have been caused by an iron in the family home. An investigation was carried out and it was concluded that the burn happened accidentally.
In July 2015, social workers noted that both Sara and a sibling had scars potentially consistent with cigarette burns. Ms Domin and Sharif said they were chickenpox scars.
Sara was also reported to be exhibiting some “disturbed behaviour”, which included standing facing a wall, and was said to be fearful of returning to her parents.
Before her death, Sara was burned on her buttocks with an iron and had a “makeshift hood” placed over her head.
She was regularly punished by being beaten with household objects including a cricket bat. As her health deteriorated from the intensity of the beatings, Sharif forced her to wear a nappy. When she started being sick, her father beat her with a metal pole.
There was evidence her feet were plunged into buckets of boiling water. She had bite marks on her skin allegedly caused by Batool. There was also evidence she had been tied to a hot pipe with packing tape and beaten.
Pictures of her abusers? Again, fair enough. Might put them at extra risk-serves them right
What is objectionable, and downright irresponsible, are the pictures of the Head Teacher, Head of Social Services, etc. These people were doing their best, or relying on Staff under them to do their best.
They do not deserve being put in the public stocks in this way. Take that Head Teacher, for example. They identified a risk. Forwarded it to the specialist authorities. And the child had already been withdrawn from the School prior to her death.
Imagine doing something in your job that, with the benefit of hindsight, led to problems caused by others. How would you feel, if your picture was in the National Press, associating you with child abuse?
Comments
The father and stepmother of Sara Sharif have been jailed for life for killing the 10-year-old girl after years of "almost inconceivable" abuse.
Urfan Sharif, 42, and Beinash Batool, 30, were found guilty of Sara's murder last week following a trial at the Old Bailey. Her uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, who lived with them, was convicted of causing or allowing her death.
At their sentencing on Tuesday, Urfan Sharif was given a minimum term of 40 years, while Beinash Batool was handed a minimum term of 33 years. Malik, who was convicted of causing or allowing Sara's death, was jailed for 16 years.
In a victim statement read out in court, Sara sharif's mother Olga Sharif described them as "executioners", while a judge said Sara's death was a “culmination of years of neglect”, “frequent assault” and “torture” for none of them had shown "a shred of remorse".
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/sara-sharif-murder-father-stepmother-life-sentence-130942229.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czr3vygvyy7o
Listening to the sentencing in the Sara Sharif trial, it's hard not to be gripped with anger and disbelief.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/deadly-thread-runs-sara-sharif-145900142.html
It would be superb if we could finally put a system in place that actually worked.
She was let down by a number of authorities which surely amount to negligence.
She had been under police protection.
She had been in foster care.
There werre 3 family court cases involving Sara.
The police, and social services were aware of reports of abuse by her family, before she was even born.
I think her teachers, and school did their bit.
Why would anyone think that giving parents the right to home school their children as being at all reasonable.
The poor girl was badly let down by almost everyone that she came into contact with.
As a result, on the day she was born, Jan 11 2013, Sara was immediately placed on a child protection plan, a set of measures aimed at ensuring her safety.
She later spent time in foster care and for years she had only supervised contact with the man who would go on to murder her.
One social worker who was present during these supervised visits said that whenever Sharif went near his daughter, she shouted at him to “go away”. Another described him as seeming to have “no empathy”.
Despite these concerns, in 2019 the family court in Guildford awarded custody of Sara to her father. The decision went in his favour after he filmed her making allegations of neglect and abuse against her mother. Ms Domin supported Sara being looked after by her father.
The positive influence of Sharif’s new partner, Batool, was also a factor.
The judge handed him custody despite social services’ extensive involvement with the family, court documents reveal.
Social services first became involved after Sharif was arrested on suspicion of assaulting Ms Domin and a baby in 2010.
Police who visited the family home over 2011 and 2012 reported some concerns, including that the children were not being supervised adequately, were being abused emotionally and the house was dirty.
In February 2013, social services were called after one of her siblings told a teacher their father had been slapping them.
In May 2013, a sibling was seen with a burn mark on his leg and forehead, which appeared to have been caused by an iron in the family home. An investigation was carried out and it was concluded that the burn happened accidentally.
In July 2015, social workers noted that both Sara and a sibling had scars potentially consistent with cigarette burns. Ms Domin and Sharif said they were chickenpox scars.
Sara was also reported to be exhibiting some “disturbed behaviour”, which included standing facing a wall, and was said to be fearful of returning to her parents.
Before her death, Sara was burned on her buttocks with an iron and had a “makeshift hood” placed over her head.
She was regularly punished by being beaten with household objects including a cricket bat. As her health deteriorated from the intensity of the beatings, Sharif forced her to wear a nappy. When she started being sick, her father beat her with a metal pole.
There was evidence her feet were plunged into buckets of boiling water. She had bite marks on her skin allegedly caused by Batool. There was also evidence she had been tied to a hot pipe with packing tape and beaten.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgedlr7qg1o
Pictures of that poor girl? Fine
Pictures of her abusers? Again, fair enough. Might put them at extra risk-serves them right
What is objectionable, and downright irresponsible, are the pictures of the Head Teacher, Head of Social Services, etc. These people were doing their best, or relying on Staff under them to do their best.
They do not deserve being put in the public stocks in this way. Take that Head Teacher, for example. They identified a risk. Forwarded it to the specialist authorities. And the child had already been withdrawn from the School prior to her death.
Imagine doing something in your job that, with the benefit of hindsight, led to problems caused by others. How would you feel, if your picture was in the National Press, associating you with child abuse?
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/naming-judges-sara-sharif-cases-121102485.html