Sara Sharif’s father angrily accused his wife of being an evil ‘psycho’ today, saying he once walked in to find his daughter had been tied up.
Urfan Sharif, 42, claimed he came home to find Beinash Batool, 30, had bound her 10-year-old stepdaughter in parcel tape, twisting her arms behind her back.
The defendant pointed at his wife in the dock saying he never knew that he was ‘living with evil’.
He told jurors: ‘Her hands were twisted behind her back tied with parcel tape. Sara was terrified.’
Sobbing, he said: ‘Beinash said, “She was naughty so I tied her hands so she could not hurt anyone else”.
Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, is also accused of murder and causing or allowing the death of a child
Following Sharif’s 999 call, police raced to his home in Woking, Surrey on August 10 where Sara was found dead having suffered at least 71 external injuries, including dozens of broken bones
Court artist sketch of Beinash Batool. Batool cried in the dock as the video of Sara dancing was played in court
The family home in Woking, Surrey, where the body of 10-year-old Sara Sharif was found
‘I took the tape off Sara and I shouted and screamed. I was angry, I asked why did you do it? I believed her when she said Sara had been naughty.
‘She apologised to me and she promised that she wouldn’t do it again.
‘And even after those days, I was that stupid that I believed her.’
The schoolgirl was found dead at her home in Woking on 10 August 2023 after Sharif and Batool fled to Pakistan where he made a tearful 999 call saying: ‘I killed my daughter.’
Sara had suffered at least 71 external injuries, including dozens of broken bones,.
But Sharif later claimed he wasn’t responsible for the murder and had only confessed to protect his family.
The taxi driver admitted he had ‘slapped’ Sara multiple times, but insisted he was ‘forced’ into it by Batool who would repeatedly accuse her stepdaughter of misbehaving.
‘That poor girl was always being accused by that psycho sitting there, that psycho over there, she always accused my daughter,’ he said pointing at the dock of the Old Bailey.
‘And nothing happened when I was at home.
‘She told me my daughter was doing everything to make her life hell.
‘All the time she would accuse Sara.
‘I should not have believed her, I never knew that I was living with evil and psycho.’
Raising his voice, he told jurors that he and his brother Faisal Malik, 29, didn’t harm Sara: ‘I will prove that the one who’s sitting there, who is showing us that she was very good, I will show what kind of life she gave to my kid at that time.’
Nameen Mian, defending, KC asked: ‘According to her you’re the psycho, you’re the one who took a cricket bat to Sara.’
Sharif replied: ‘No. Did I bite my Sara? Did I burn my Sara? I didn’t. I gave you a dental impression to find out who is the person who bit my daughter like an animal.
‘I didn’t do it, Faisal didn’t do it, who else was at home?’
Jurors heard that Sharif and Malik provided dental impressions to prove they did not bite Sara, but Batool refused.
Batool allegedly ordered 12 rolls of Amazon parcel tape to construct home-made hoods taping plastic bags around the victim’s face leaving just a small hole for her mouth.
Sharif’s fingerprints were found on one of the bags and the tape, but he denied hooding his daughter, saying he just thought it was rubbish and put it in a wheelie bin.
Sharif, Batool, and Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik (pictured), 29, deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child
The Old Bailey heard that Sharif had previously complained Sara was making his ‘life hell’ 18 months before her death
During proceedings, the court was shown pictures of the families Surrey home
The court heard that just days before her death, Sara begged her father not to go to work.
Sharif said it was the ‘biggest mistake of my life’ that he didn’t believe Sara after she was falsely accused of scribbling on walls, cutting hair and hitting Beinash calling her a ‘dumb b****’ over two years.
He told jurors: ‘Sara said to me, “Dad it’s not me. Whatever is happening at home, it’s Beinash.”.’
He added: ‘I blame myself, I did not believe them at the time… the kid was scared of me when I was disciplining her. It was me. I was wrong.’
Sharif, Batool and Malik deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
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