Sara Sharif’s father has admitted beating his 10-year-old daughter with a cricket bat and said he takes “full responsibility” for her death, in dramatic evidence to his Old Bailey trial.
Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, is charged alongside wife Beinash Batool, 30, and Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik, 29, with murdering the young girl before fleeing to Pakistan.
Sara had suffered an appalling catalogue of injuries and abuse in the weeks and months before her death, including burns, bite injuries, and a broken neck.
Jurors have also heard evidence that she was tortured by being forced to stay up all night doing sit-ups.
When the 10-year-old was found dead, on August 10 last year, police found a note by the body penned by Sharif. He wrote that he had “killed my daughter by beating”, and phoned police from Pakistan to say: “I’ve killed my daughter - I legally punished her, and she died”.
Accused of murder, Sharif turned on Batool and suggested she had inflicted a devastating catalogue of injuries on his daughter.
But in a dramatic twist on Wednesday, a sobbing Sharif said from the witness box that he is responsible for his daughter’s injuries and saying: “I accept every single thing.”
In a court grilling, Sharif said he wanted the murder charge to be put to him again. But after the lunch break he resumed his evidence and insisted: “I did not intend to kill her.”
Earlier, Sharif told shocked jurors that he had beaten his daughter with a cricket bat or a pole days before she died.
Sara was found dead at the family home in Woking, Surrey, tucked under a blanket on an upstairs bunkbed at the otherwise deserted property.
She had suffered dozens of injuries including human bite marks and iron burns, jurors have heard.
Sharif’s bombshell evidence came after sustained questioning in the trial from Batool’s barrister Caroline Carberry KC.
She asked Sharif about the confession note he left beside the body of his daughter before leaving for Pakistan, which started “love you Sara” and continued: “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, apart from 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.”
Court proceedings were paused after he indicated that he would like the murder charge put to him again.
But when the trial resumed after lunch, Ms Carberry said: “You understood and you still understand that by accepting that you beat Sara to death and in doing so you intended to do her really serious harm you are guilty of murder?”
Sharif replied: “No. I did not want to hurt her. I didn’t want to harm her.”
Ms Carberry said: “But you did harm her. What did you intend when you took a cricket bat to a 10-year-old girl?”
The defendant became tearful as he said: “I did wrong. I didn’t think anything. I wasn’t thinking.”
Asked if he “accepts that you killed her?” Sharif replied: “She died because of me. I didn’t want to kill her.”
Earlier in the week, Sharif had claimed he was out working in his taxi when Sara was injured, blaming Batool.
He denied accusations that he is a “lying, manipulative and controlling man”.
Neighbours reported hearing screaming, shouting, and banging noises from the family home in the months before Sara’s death.
It is said she was made to wear a hijab to hide bruising from her teachers, before she was abruptly withdrawn from school.
Earlier in his evidence, Sharif told jurors about holding his daughter in his arms after she had died.
“I was numb”, he said. “My world crushed, the whole world has fallen on me.”
He claimed his daughter was “limp” already when he returned home from work.
“I tapped her face, asked Sara to get up, but she didn’t get up so I took Sara from Batool’s lap and tapped her again”, he said.
“She opened her eyes, said she is thirsty, needs water, and she’s feeling sleepy.
“I shouted for water. She (Batool) gave me the water but she (Sara) didn’t drink. She did not wake up, she was sleeping.”
Sharif claimed he attempted to revive his daughter, but Batool hugged him and said: “Leave her, Sara is dead.”
The family left the UK for Pakistan, and were out of the country before alerted the police to her death.
Sharif, Batool, and Malik, 29, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, all deny Sara’s murder and causing or allowing her death.
The trial continues.
