Chilling footage shows police entering Sara Sharif's home to find dead girl after father 'said he killed her'
15 October 2024, 19:58
Some readers may find the following details distressing
Bodyworn camera footage of first officers arriving at Sara Sharif house
Chilling bodyworn camera footage shows the first police officers entering the home of Sara Sharif, a ten-year-old girl whose father is among three people accused of murdering her.
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The footage shows police arriving at the house in Woking in Surrey around five minutes after being called by Urfan Sharif, Sara's father.
The officers walk around the ground floor of the house, which is in darkness, asking if anyone is at home.
Finally, the officer whose bodyworn footage is being played walks up the stairs towards Sara's bedroom.
The rest of the family had flown to Pakistan after Sara's death, and Sharif had called police to tell her that she had died.
A note left by Sara's bed, ostensibly from Sharif, claims he killed her.
Sharif, Sharif is on trial for Sara's murder alongside her stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 29. All three deny the charge.
Jurors at the trial were shown the note found next to Sara's body at the family home in Woking last year.
The note read: "It's me, Urfan Sharif who killed my daughter by beating. I swear to God it was not my intention to kill her but I lost it."
It added: "I'm running away because I'm scared."
The note also said: "My daughter is Muslim. Can you bury her like Muslim may be. I will be back before you finish the post mortem."
The day after her death, Sara’s whole family fled on a flight out of the UK to Pakistan.
Her father was thousands of miles away when he made the call to Surrey Police to confess her death.
During the call, which lasted eight minutes and 34 seconds, the taxi driver can be heard crying as he confessed to killing his daughter, refusing to reveal his location and saying he would hand himself in to Woking police station.
In the phone call, played to jurors on Tuesday, an emotional Sharif asked the operator to write down his address, spelling out his postcode, and telling them to "send someone" to his home on Hammond Road, Woking.
In the recording, Sharif said Sara had been "naughty" over the last three to four weeks and he was "giving her punishment" to "sort her out", adding "I did something and she died".
Earlier in the call, the operator can be heard asking Sharif "is everything okay?" to which he responds: "Nothing is okay."
At one point, Sharif can be heard getting so emotional that the operator says he cannot understand what he is saying and tells him to "take a deep breath".
Sharif continued: "I did legally punish my daughter and she died. I left the home in a panic. I killed my daughter. I killed my daughter."
Sharif can then be heard telling the operator he left his front door keys under the mat and repeatedly asking police to go to his address.
He said: "My daughter's dead. I panicked and left home." The operator then asks who killed Sharif's daughter, to which he responds "It's me. Her dada."
Sharif added: "I beat her up, it wasn't my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much." He then said Sara was not breathing when he left the house and he failed to resuscitate her using CPR.
During the call Sharif spells out his and his daughter's full names and dates of birth. The operator asked whether the 10-year-old was bleeding anywhere, to which her father responded "no".
"She is dead, I am telling you," he added. Sharif can be heard refusing to answer questions about his location at the time of the call, telling the operator he left his car at the Heathrow terminal three car park.
When asked where he was, Sharif responded: "I cannot give more detail, I promise I'll come back. I'll face the death sentence."
The court heard the note had been analysed by an expert who concluded it was Urfan Sharif's handwriting.
The court also heard that Batool told her sisters about violence against the 10-year-old spanning at least two years before her death, saying "something happens to Sara I will not be able to forgive myself", a court has heard.
Beinash Batool had blamed her husband Urfan Sharif for beating the 10-year-old "black" in a series of WhatsApp messages dating back to 2019, the Old Bailey was told.
But the prosecution alleged Batool, 30, minicab driver Sharif, 42, and his brother Faisal Malik, 29, all played a part in Sara's death after being hooded, restrained, burned, bitten and hit with a belt buckle and pole.
In May 2021, she messaged her sister: "Urfan beat the crap out of Sara.
"She's covered in bruises, literally beaten black.
"I feel really sorry for Sara, poor girl can't walk. I really want to report him."
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said the messages Batool sent to her sisters showed "all was not well" in the household and cast Sharif as an "angry parent".
He told jurors: "As a minimum, it shows that Sara was being hurt and injured as long ago as spring of 2021 - so that is more than two years before her death - and that Beinash Batool was aware and even on her version of events, she didn't stop it."
In February 2022, the court heard she told another sister that Sharif was "beating Sara up ... 'cos she's being naughty".
She said that Sara had "anxiety" and vomited whatever she ate, adding: "Urfan's behaviour makes her do it more."
Then she told her sister: "Something happens to Sara I will not be able to forgive myself."
In the summer of 2022, the court heard Bartool complained that she could not cover up the bruises, saying: "He beat Sara up yesterday and I can't send her to school on Monday looking like that."
Sara was taken out of school in April 2023 and died four months later.
Mr Emlyn Jones told jurors: "These messages are only one small part of the overall picture.
"It is the prosecution's case that Sara's death was caused by the combined actions of all three adults in the house; for the systematic, if not daily then certainly frequent assault and abuse of that little girl could not have been done without the participation, assistance and encouragement of them all.
"Keeping it from the outside world is just one small aspect of that. It would be no surprise, the prosecution suggest, if Beinash Batool presented only a partial picture of the truth to members of her own family."
Previously, Sara's mother, Olg Sharif, previously said she was so badly injured she could not recognise her in the mortuary.
"One of her cheeks was swollen and the other side was bruised.
"Even now, when I close my eyes I can see what my baby looked like."
Sara also began to wear a hijab to school to "conceal injuries to her face and head", jurors were told.
Neighbour Chloe Redwin noticed the child had started to wear a hijab in January 2023 which "she thought was unusual as she had never worn one before and her mother did not wear one", prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said.
The court heard that Sara’s primary school noticed a bruise under her left eye in June 2022 as well as a bruise on her chin and a dark mark on her right eye in March 2023.
Sara Sharif’s father faces court after being charged with 10-year-old’s murder
Mr Emlyn Jones suggested: "The fact that Sara began to wear the hijab at around this time is indicative of the need to conceal injuries to her face and head from the outside world."
Jurors heard of concerns about Sara's injuries at her school before she was home schooled last April, four months before her death.
The school recorded Sara had a bruise under her left eye in June 2022 and then in March 2023, a bruise on her chin and a dark mark on her right eye.
The school contacted Children's Single Point of Access for advice, and it was agreed that a referral to social services was needed, Mr Emlyn Jones said.
Sara's teacher Helen Simmons described her as a "happy child", who at times would be "sassy".
When she asked Sara about bruises last March, she gave conflicting explanations and pulled her hijab to hide her face.
The defendants, of Hammond Road in Woking, have denied Sara's murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16 2022 and August 9 2023.
The Old Bailey trial continues.
