Sara Sharif’s father sobbed today as he denied killing his daughter.
Urfan Sharif denied beating his 10-year-old daughter Sara to death before going on the run to Pakistan.
The 42-year-old dabbed his eyes with a tissue as he said he had never bitten his daughter, burnt her, nor hit her with a cricket bat or white pole.
Police raced to the family home in Woking, Surrey on August 10 last year after Sharif made a tearful 999 call from Pakistan claiming he had killed his daughter saying: ‘I legally punished her and she died.’
But Sharif denied being ‘responsible’ for her death today.
Urfan Sharif (left), 42, who is charged with murder and causing or allowing the death of a child
Sara was found to have ten spinal fractures and further fractures to her right collar bone, both shoulder blades, both arms, both hands, three separate fingers, bones near the wrist in each hand, two ribs and her hyoid bone in the neck
Sara’s body was found under a blanket in a bunk bed at her home in Woking, Surrey, in August
The Old Bailey has previously heard that the schoolgirl was found dead lying under the pink covers of her bunk bed at her home in Woking.
She had suffered an appalling catalogue of injuries following a brutal campaign of violence.
Her whole body was covered in bruises, bite marks, puncture wounds and abrasions from significant blunt force trauma.
She had been tied up, possibly to a hot pipe, scalded with hot water, and had burn marks on her buttock from an iron.
A post-mortem examination revealed she had been ‘beaten’ with objects, strangled, and was ‘left severely unwell, close to death’ from a series of head injuries.
In addition, Sara had 11 spinal fractures and suffered broken ribs, collar bone, shoulder blades, both of her arms, her hands and some of her fingers were fractured.
Naeem Mian, KC, defending, told jurors that Sharif believed Sara’s injuries were sustained in fights with other children.
The family home in Woking, Surrey, where the body of 10-year-old Sara Sharif was found
Mr Mian said Sharif was ‘no angel’, but he ‘didn’t know what was going on at home’.
He told jurors that Sharif would have to ‘physically discipline’ Sara on occasion with a ‘slap’, but not with a cricket bat or pole.
Mr Mian said Sharif tried to give Sara CPR and begged for an ambulance to be called on August 10, but he was told ‘leave it, she’s dead’.
Sharif is said to have decided afterwards, ‘I will take the blame,’ jurors were told.
Sharif denies murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
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