Sara Sharif’s stepmother gave a “no comment” reply when asked by police whether she loved or cared at all about the 10-year-old, according to chilling newly released footage.
Jurors found the schoolgirl’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and father Urfan Sharif, 42, guilty of her murder on Wednesday. Her uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, was convicted of causing or allowing her death.
The trial at the Old Bailey heard that the child died after years of horrific abuse, including being burned, bitten, beaten, hooded and restrained by the pair during her short life.
After the verdicts, police released videos showing all three defendants being interviewed on 14 September 2023, the day after they were arrested at Gatwick Airport after flying back from Pakistan.
Sara was found dead in a bunk bed at the family home in Woking, Surrey, on 10 August 2023, after Sharif called police from Pakistan and said he had beaten her up “too much”.
In a 68-second clip, Batool replies “No comment” to seven questions from officers, including “Do you love Sara?”, “Did you care about her at all?”, “What did you see?” and “What happened to Sara?”.
At the start of the video Batool, wearing a black long-sleeved garment and smiling slightly, confirms her identity and responds “killing someone”, when asked what her understanding was of murder.
Another video shows Malik replying “no comment” when asked by police who was responsible for the girl’s death and when an officer explains that she thinks he was either “actively involved” in torturing Sara or was “sat there going ‘it’s not my problem, I can’t do anything'”.
Taxi driver Sharif is seen in a separate clip providing a handwriting sample of the words “love you Sara, maybe I will be back before you finish the post-mortem”, almost the same words that were in a note found next to the girl’s body.
Asked by police what he can tell them about the note, Sharif replies “no comment”. Wearing a white polo shirt and jeans, he sat with his arms folded.
Other footage released by police shows the moment the three were arrested at Gatwick on 13 September last year.
An 11-second video shows police approaching the family, who are still sitting on the plane, in which Batool raises her hand and says “I think you’re looking for us”.
All three are expressionless in separate clips, as an officer tells them of the discovery of Sara’s body by police and that they are being arrested for the girl’s murder.
After the trial, police also released footage of Sara sitting on a black leather sofa, singing and playing guitar and dancing, in what appears to be a playground.
A post-mortem examination found Sara had more than 25 broken bones, from being hit repeatedly with a cricket bat, metal pole and mobile phone.
She had a broken hyoid bone in her neck from being throttled, human bite marks on her arm and thigh and burn marks on her buttocks and feet.
