Sara Sharif’s father ‘did not intend to kill her’ but admits beating her over the head with phone months before death

13 November 2024, 15:55 | Updated: 13 November 2024, 21:24

Sara Sharif's father told jurors he "did not intend to kill" his daughter, despite admitting he repeatedly hit Sara over the head with a mobile phone in the run-up to her death.

Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, made the admission under cross-examination as his wife Beinash Batool, 30, sobbed in the dock of the Old Bailey on Wednesday.

It comes despite Sharif telling the court he "takes full responsibility" for the death of his 10-year-old daughter but denies her murder.

Previously, Sharif had sought to blame Batool for killing his daughter but in a dramatic admission, told jurors: "I accept every single thing."

Sharif admitted in court that he bound his daughter with tape, with the court hearing he beat his daughter with a pole or cricket bat in the weeks leading up to her death in August 2023.

Cross-examining for Batool, Caroline Carberry KC asked Sharif: "When you used the phone on her head did you use it banging it time and time again on her head?"

Sharif replied: "Yes."

Sara Sharif was found dead at the family home in Woking, Surrey, last August 10 after the defendants fled to Pakistan.

She suffered dozens of injuries including human bite marks and iron burns, jurors have heard.

Ms Carberry said he had asked Sharif about a note he left beside the body of his daughter before leaving for Pakistan.

In it he wrote "love you Sara" on the first page followed by the words: "Whoever see this note it's me Urfan Sharif who killed my daughter by beating."

Ms Carberry asked if he did indeed kill his daughter by beating and Sharif replied: "Yes, she died because of me."

The barrister said: "In the weeks before she died she suffered multiple fractures to her body, didn't she, and it was you who inflicted those injuries?"

The defendant replied: "Yes."

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Sharif accepted causing the injuries, bar burn and bite marks, and added: "I take responsibility. I take full responsibility."

He admitted causing fractures to Sara by hitting her with a cricket bat or pole.

Asked if he broke Sara's hyoid neck bone, he repeated: "I can take full responsibility. I accept every single thing."

Ms Carberry went on: "I suggest on the night of the 6th August you badly beat Sara."

Speaking barely above a whisper in the witness box, Sharif replied: "I accept everything."

Sharif made the shock admissions on the seventh day of his evidence to the jury.

Previously, he had put the blame on Batool and claimed that he was out of the house working in his taxi when the abuse was going on.

Earlier in the week, Ms Carberry told him: "You are a lying, manipulative and controlling man, aren't you?"

Sharif replied: "No, I am not."

Sharif, Batool, and Sara's uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, deny Sara's murder and causing or allowing her death.