The father of Sara Sharif, the British-Pakistani 10-year-old girl whose death sparked an international manhunt last year, forced his daughter to do sit-ups all night because he hid her keys, as reported A court heard earlier this week. Urfan Sharif is also said to have put her hands in the air after beating the little girl so badly that her stepmother, Binash Batool, feared he would break her arms and legs, Guardian Informed.
Shocking revelations emerged when prosecutors on Thursday read out a series of WhatsApp messages between Batool and his elder sister Kandila Saboohi from 2019 to 2013, telling the court in detail about the alleged abuse. In text messages, Batool described the 10-year-old’s father as a “psychopath” who “beat Sarah as crap”. according to GuardianShe also said that when the 10-year-old girl’s teachers became concerned that she would have to be home-schooled, Sharif told her to cover up the girl’s injuries with makeup and sunglasses.
Specifically, Sharif, 42, his wife, Batool, 30, and brother Faisal Malik, 29, are accused of carrying out a violent “campaign of abuse” before the 10-year-old was found dead at the family home in Surrey. In August 2023. The trio allegedly murdered Sara on 8 August before fleeing to Pakistan, from where Sharif called the police saying he had “beaten her badly”. He also left a handwritten “confession” near her body, which read, “I swear to God I didn’t mean to kill her. But I lost it”.
On Thursday, the court heard how the girl was “literally beaten” by her father, as jurors were shown photographs of inside the house where Sarah was found dead. Text messages recovered from Batool’s sister’s phone revealed that the stepmother once told Saboohi that Sharif would “regret” if Sara revealed that he “beats her like crazy and caused all the injuries”. , before adding: “I literally have to push Urfan out and save Sara.”
Batul also sent 10 photos showing bruises, saying, “How badly he’s beating her… I’m really sorry for him, he beats her so badly.”
On 24 January 2021, Batool told Saboohi that Sharif “beat Sara like crazy” and “tortured” her. Describing another incident in May 2021, Batool wrote, “Urfan is going crazy beating Sara. I am having a kind of panic attack… He is literally going to break her arm or leg, “I don’t know what to do…I’m in the other room, he’s locked us out, he’s not opening the door.”
The next day, Batool tells her sister that she wants to complain to Sharif for “Sarah’s nonsense”. Batool said, “She’s covered in bruises, really…black.” He added, “The poor girl can’t walk, she literally passed out in the kitchen in the morning” and “He made her do sit-ups all night”.
In February 2022, Batool messaged another sister, Amima Shahid, to say that Sharif was beating Sara at home. “(If) something happened to Sarah I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself,” she said, according to the BBC.
In June of that year, Batool told his sister that he was considering withdrawing Sarah from school. She said, “Sara has real injuries on her body because Urfan had beaten her, I can’t even hide it.” The 30-year-old also said that Sara was beaten for being “rude and rebellious”.
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A few days later, Batool told Saboohi that the school was “concerned” about Sara and that Sharif had been asked to bring her in. Batool said: “Urfan asked me to cover it (the injuries) with makeup and she is going to wear sunglasses.”
In November 2022, Batool messaged the other sister, Shahid, saying she was “too stressed to talk” and that she and Sharif had separated. Batool also said that Sharif was leaving for Pakistan the next day, adding: “He has gone mad today”, and that he has taken the money and passport.
In April 2023, Batool said that Sara was not eating properly and was trying to vomit. In May she said Sharif had beaten Sara “like crazy” and added, “Her oxygen levels have gone really low, she’s finding it hard to stay awake… She’s breathing really fast. “
The day before Sara’s death, Sabuhi tried to contact him but Batool told him he was “in no mood to speak”.
Sharif, Batool and Malik all deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child. Jurors were previously told that Sarah was masked, burned, cut and beaten during more than two years of abuse. She was also told by the prosecution that the accuracy of the messages Batool sent to her sisters over several years was in dispute, as they reflected only what she was trying to tell them.
The case is going on.
