Sara Sharif's father and stepmother are 'beasts' not people, says grandmother
13 December 2024, 16:13 | Updated: 13 December 2024, 16:15
The father and stepmother of murdered 10-year-old Sara Sharif are “beasts”, her grandmother has said.
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Sara Sharif's broken and battered body was found under bed covers in her family home on August 10 last year.
Her father Urfan Sharif, 43 and stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, have been found guilty of the murder of 10-year-old Sara in their Surrey home.
Sylwia Kurz, Sara’s maternal grandmother, has branded the two killers “beasts” as she said her “family will never heal.”
Speaking to Polish TV channel TVN24, Kurz, the mother of Sara’s mum Olga Domin, said: “I cannot understand how he is trying to defend himself in this way.
“He was the one who abused the family. I know Urfan, he speaks Polish very well.
“The Polish proverb fits here: a drowning man grabs at straws — the woman believes.
“I suspect that the stepmother was also an abuser, but she, like Olga, was also beaten. I suspect that she took her frustration out on Sara,” the grandmother added.
“I suspect that she is on a par with Urfan, they are not people, they are beasts.”
Kurz continued: “I can’t understand it — how much Sara had to go through. After what they did to her, she must have suffered a lot. How can one be such a degenerate?”
When asked why she and her daughter did not attend the trial of Urfan Sharif, she said “How are we supposed to sit there and listen to all this? We are already going through hell.
“None of us could cope. As a grandmother, I am already mentally exhausted, and imagine how Olga feels, who buried her own child. Sitting there and looking into their faces … I probably wouldn’t be able to stand it. These are wounds that will never heal,” she said.
Sara’s mother Olga said Urfan Sharif “started to strangle me with a belt” and “tried to set fire on me once - he poured oil on me, but my cousin stopped him.”
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At the time of Sara’s death, Ms Domin told TVN24: “There was a situation when [Sharif] told me not to go anywhere. I said I was going because my friend was waiting for me. He started to strangle me with a belt then.
“He tried to set me on fire once — he poured oil on me, but my cousin stopped him.
“And he simply locked me in a room. He locked me up for the whole day until the police arrived. When they showed up, he pretended that nothing had happened, that the door was open.”
Ms Domin lost custody of Sara to Sharif and his wife, Beinash Batool, in 2019. Domin claimed that Sharif was given custody of her daughter because Sara falsely claimed she had slapped her.
Sara was beaten to death four years after taxi driver Sharif was awarded custody, despite accusations of abuse against him, jurors heard.
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said Sharif created a "culture of violent discipline", where assaults on Sara had "become completely routine, completely normalised".
Authorities failed to identify Sara was at risk for years before her broken and battered body was discovered at her family home in Woking on August 10 2023.
Speaking to broadcasters on Thursday, the PM described the case as "just awful".
He added: "It's very hard to see, to read about, for many people who will be viewing, it's just shocking.
"So that's where I start on this. Obviously, there's going to be questions that need to be answered in relation to this case."
