Sara Sharif’s stepmother would ‘scream’ at the schoolgirl so loudly a neighbour warned her friend about moving into her flat, a court heard.
Beinash Batool, 30, allegedly swore at her stepdaughter and ordered her to ‘deal with’ the children if they started crying.
Rebecca Spencer sometimes heard a ‘thwack’ and ‘doors rattling’ as if someone had been ‘locked in a bedroom’ and was trying to get out.
She broke down in tears today as she told jurors she considered reporting what she heard to authorities – but never did.
Sara, 10, was allegedly beaten to death before Batool fled to Pakistan with Sara’s father, Urfan Sharif, 42, and her uncle Faisal Malik, 29.
Sara, 10, (pictured) was allegedly beaten to death before Batool fled to Pakistan with Sara’s father, Urfan Sharif, 42, and her uncle Faisal Malik, 29
Beinash Batool, 30, (pictured) allegedly swore at her stepdaughter and ordered her to ‘deal with’ the children if they started crying
Police charged Sharif, (left) his wife Beinash Batool and his younger brother Faisal Malik, 29, (right) who were all living in the house at the time of the murder
Ms Spencer lived in the apartment on top of the family’s ground floor apartment in West Byfleet, Surrey (pictured) between 2018 and 2020
Urfan then phoned the police and confessed to the killing but prosecutors allege all three are culpable for murder and causing or allowing the death.
Ms Spencer lived in the apartment on top of the family’s ground floor apartment in West Byfleet, Surrey between 2018 and 2020.
She described how Urfan had a black BMW with taxi signs on and was ‘out in the day time a lot’ but Batool was nearly always at home.
Ms Spencer told the Old Bailey that ‘very often’ she heard ‘the step mother screaming at the children’.
She described how she could hear Sara singled out for abuse.
‘I would hear the stepmother shout at Sara because she screamed her name,’ she told prosecutor William Jones KC.
‘I would hear the step mum screaming at the children and then it going silent.’
She added: ‘It often seemed like they were being locked in a bedroom that kind of constant rattling of a door trying to get it open.
Prosecutors allege all three are culpable for murder and causing or allowing the death of Sara
Court artist drawing shows Sarah Sharif’s father Urfan Sharif (right) her uncle Faisal Malik (left), and stepmother Beinash Batool (centre) sitting alongside dock officers at the Old Bailey
Ms Spencer’s experience was so bad she claims that when a friend on the street, Chloe Redwin, suggested moving in, she warned her about the family
‘That was often. Normally after the stepmother had screamed at them. The children screamed but as if having a tantrum… Then it would go quiet.’
Ms Spencer apologised to the court as she described the sort of words she heard Batool scream. ‘She said f***ing. F***ing bastards,’ she explained.
‘Just effing get…. Just not very nice, Not words you would expect to be spoken to children.’
If the children started crying when they were playing outside, Batool ‘would just scream out of the window’ for Sara to ‘just deal with it’.
Remembering one particularly bad incident, she said: ‘It was fever pitch.’ Ms Spencer went down and asked ‘Is everything ok in here?’
‘They said, ‘Yes, yes’, and the door was shut in my face. That was the stepmother.
‘It had gone on for a long time and I was coming to the end of my tether a bit. The constant screaming and crying and banging.’
She would try and speak to the family about it when she saw them. ‘I would say in passing, ‘You have got your hands full’. Words to that effect,’ she said.
Court artist sketch of Sara Sharif’s stepmother Beinash Batool appearing via video-link, from Bronzefield women’s prison in Surrey
Ms Spencer described getting to know Sara when she threw a birthday party for her ex-partner’s son in September 2020 in their communal garden, calling her a ‘lovely little girl’
It was so bad that when a friend on the street, Chloe Redwin, suggested moving in, Ms Spencer warned her about the family.
‘I said to her are you sure you want to move in there with the family,’ she said.
Ms Spencer also saw Sara ‘constantly doing chores’. She described getting to know Sara when she threw a birthday party for her ex-partner’s son in September 2020 in their communal garden.
‘Sara was a lovely little girl,’ she said. ‘She was taking part in all the games. She spent most of her time chatting to me rather than playing with the other children.
Ms Spencer said she ‘can’t recall’ Urfan ever shouting and said it was not as noisy when he was at home.
It was also ‘different’ during term time when Sara was at school. Ms Spencer remembered how she was ‘particularly dreading the summer holidays’.
She said she contacted the council because she was concerned about overcrowding in the property.
Though her face was hidden by a curtain to protect her identity, Ms Spencer was heard sobbing as she confirmed to the prosecutor that she never reported the abusive language.
Sara suffered 71 external injuries as well as 11 spinal fractures, two broken ribs, broken shoulder blades, arms and hands, and a broken collarbone. Three of her fingers were also fractured.
A postmortem examination revealed Sara had suffered ‘multiple and extensive injuries’ over a ‘sustained and extended’ period before her death in August last year.
Urfan, Batool, and Malik all deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
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