Sara Sharif's dad claims stepmum refused to call 999 after he found her 'limp' body
8 November 2024, 15:24 | Updated: 8 November 2024, 15:35
Some readers may find the following details distressing
The father of murdered schoolgirl Sara Sharif told a court he gave his daughter CPR after she died and that his wife refused to call 999.
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Urfan Sharif claimed Beinash Batool called him home from work on the evening of August 8 last year.
The 10-year-old was found dead under a blanket at her home in Woking, Surrey.
On Friday, the 42-year-old former taxi driver tearfully told a court he felt his "world crushed" as he held her lifeless body in his arms when he returned home.
When asked to describe his emotional state as he hugged and kissed his daughter, Sharif told jurors: "I was numb. My world crushed, the whole world has fallen on me."
He is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of Sara's murder, along with Batool, 30, and uncle Faisal Malik, 29.
Giving evidence on Friday, Sharif said Sara was "limp" on Batool's lap in a bedroom by the time he returned home.
His wife had claimed Sara was being "dramatic" and "pretending" not to get up after she fell on the stairs while being "silly" with another child, the court was told.
Sharif said: "I lifted her left arm but she wouldn't get up. Her arm was limp. I dropped it and it just went down.
"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.
"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 went on: "I shouted for (an) ambulance because I could not hear breathing. I checked the pulse and there was none.
"I started giving her CPR. I was numb, like I am now. I was shocked."
He carried on chest compressions as Batool stood by and shouted at him in Urdu: "Wake her up, wake her up, she cannot die," jurors were told.
After about 10 minutes, he stopped and Batool hugged him and said: "Leave her, Sara is dead," the court heard.
Sharif said he asked Batool where the ambulance was, but she told him: "There's no point. There is no need because she's dead."
Previously in court, Sharif cast the blame on his wife - calling her the “crazy” one who had “black magic” done to her.
He also described her as "evil and psycho" who would often accused Sara and made her life "hell".
He also branded his wife “very, very crazy,” pointing to evidence that she had abused him in the past.
Sharif has also denied Batool's repeated claims to her sister that he was "beating the crap" out of his daughter.
Sharif also told jurors he did not call emergency services himself because Batool "snatched" the phone from him and told him he should protect the family.
He also told jurors: "I wasn't myself. I was all over the place. When I left about an hour ago I hugged her, kissed her, I didn't know what happened.
"I picked her up. I just hugged her and was kissing her. I could not believe that she was gone. I was not accepting. I'm still not accepting that my daughter is gone.
"I was just hugging her, that's it. I was just asking her, 'wake up, just once'.
"I was in shock, numb like I'm sitting here. I could not understand what had happened."
Sharif closed Sara's eyes with his hands, Batool "shed a few tears" and then Malik came upstairs and "burst into tears" after failing to find a pulse, the court heard.
The defendant claimed the initial plan was for Batool to go to her relatives in Luton so he could call police and say Sara died in his care.
Batool made 30 calls to members of her family but they did not help because they were "scared", he said.
Sharif said he carried Sara into the bathroom to clean her body but was physically stopped by Batool who told him: "Are you stupid, just leave her."
The defendant said he was "shocked" to see a red mark on Sara before Batool explained the other child had beaten and stamped on her.
Sharif said he wrote a letter confessing to killing her daughter and left it beside Sara's body so he could "take the blame".
But it was Batool who instructed him to say in the note that he had "lost it", he said.
Later that night, flights were booked for the family to travel to Pakistan the next day.
Sharif said it was "selfish and inhuman" to leave his daughter alone "like an orphan".
Jurors have heard how police found Sara's body after Sharif called from Islamabad on August 10.
A post-mortem examination found she suffered dozens of injuries, including burns from an iron, human bite marks and signs of restraint.
The defendants were detained on their return to the UK on September 13 last year.
Batool sobbed in the dock throughout Sharif's evidence on Friday and Malik wiped his eyes and bowed his head.
The defendants, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16 2022 and August 9 2023.
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