Sara Sharif’s dad told police 'I've killed my daughter' in chilling 999 call, court hears
14 October 2024, 13:03 | Updated: 14 October 2024, 13:34
Sara Sharif’s father told police “I’ve killed my daughter” in a 999 call before she was found dead under a blanket, a court has heard.
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The 10-year-old girl was found dead at her home in Woking, Surrey, in August last year.
Her dad, Urfan Sharif, 42, stepmum Beinash Batool, 29, and Urfan's brother, Faisal Malik, 28 are all standing trial charged with her murder.
Opening the case on Monday, prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said Sara’s father told a 999 operator he had "killed" his daughter after claiming he “legally punished her".
He said: "At 2.47am here in the UK a call was made to Surrey Police and the call was the first defendant Urfan Sharif.
"The call to the police laste eight and a half minutes. In the call Urfan Sharif began by asking the operator to take down his address.
"It's difficult to make out what he's saying because it sounds like he's crying.
"The operator interrupted him and said 'take a deep breath' and tell me what's happened.
"999 operators as I'm sure you can imagine are used to hearing all kinds of dreadful things in 999 calls. But this operator can't have expected the answer he got to his question 'tell me what happened'.
"Urfan Sharif answer was to say 'I have killed my daughter'. He used what you may think is an odd expression. He said 'I legally punished her and she died'."
Jones continued: "A little later in the call when asked for more detail, he added 'she was naughty and then I beat her up.
“It was not my intention to kill her but I beat her up too much'."
The trio travelled to Islamabad, Pakistan, with Sara's five brothers and sisters on August 9 - the day before her body was found.
A previous court hearing was told Sara's body was found after Surrey Police received a call from Pakistan on 10 August.
The three adults were arrested on their return to the UK on September 13 and were charged two days later.
A post-mortem found Sara suffered "multiple and extensive injuries" which were probably "caused over a sustained and extended period of time".
It is believed Sharif is alleged to have died from "third party involvement."
Jones added: "Her treatment in the last few weeks of her life had been appalling. It had been brutal."
A note was found next to Sara's body, the court heard on Monday.
It 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 continued: "I'm running away because I'm scared."
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 confess her death.
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 calling to confess her death.
Jones told jurors an examination of Sara’s body showed that her father’s claim to have “beaten” her "nowhere near to describing the extent of the violence and physical abuse Sara had suffered" over a period of weeks.
He said: "Sara had not just been beaten up. Her treatment, certainly in the last few weeks of her life, had been appalling. It had been brutal. And throughout, these three defendants were the adults living in the house where Sara had lived, where she had suffered, and where she had died."
The defendants, of Hammond Road in Woking, have denied murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16 2022 and August 9 2023.
The trial before Mr Justice Cavanagh is due to go on until December 13.
