Sara Sharif: Five words that totally changed murder trial of tragic 10-year-old schoolgirl

Little Sara Sharif, 10, was tortured to death and her body left at the family home in Woking before her father, uncle and stepmother all fled the UK to Pakistan

Sara Sharif's murder trial took a drastic turn when her father suddenly told the court “she died because of me” - despite having previously denied killing her.

Sara, 10, was tortured to death and left at the family home in Woking before her father, uncle and stepmother all fled the UK to Pakistan. The youngster was discovered lifeless on a bed on August 10, 2023, after being regularly beaten with a cricket bat and metal pole, and bearing the scars and bruises of at least 71 external injuries.

Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, are now facing life sentences after the pair were found guilty at the Old Bailey on Wednesday. Her uncle Faisal Malik, 29, was found guilty of causing or allowing her death.

On November 13, four weeks into the murder trial, jurors were left stunned when Urfan Sharif appeared in the witness box and trembled as he uttered five words that would change the course of the trial: “She died because of me.”

Until then, the father had repeatedly denied killing Sara, and instead blamed his wife - Sara’s stepmother - for her death. It changed the course of the eight-week murder trial, which saw jurors listen to horrifying details of what happened to the youngster in the lead up to her death, including the torture, beatings, and injuries she was subjected to.

Sara was found to have suffered ten spinal fractures and further fractures to her right collar bone, both shoulder blades, both arms, both hands, three separate fingers, bones near the wrist in each hand, two ribs and her hyoid bone in the neck. Plastic bags bound with packaging tape were used to hood Sara and she was forced to wear a nappy as she could not use the toilet when she was tied up. She was burned on her buttocks with an iron and had six bite marks on her body.

Batool's lawyer, Caroline Carberry KC, had put all the blame on Sharif for what happened to Sara. Paying tribute to Sara's strength of character and resilience in the face of the horrific abuse, she said: "No doubt that spirit, that boldness from his daughter was what Urfan Sharif tried to silence with his beating, control, cruel punishment and degrading treatment of her. Terrorising not just Sara but everyone else who lived under the roof with."

Following the guilty verdicts, Chief Superintendent Mark Chapma said: "Surrey Police's thoughts continue to be with Sara's mother and her siblings and anyone who knew Sara in her short life. Through the course of this prosecution members of the public will have heard or read horrific detail around the injuries Sara sustained or the neglect that was administered to her. We would like to reach out to those people and say our thought are with them also."

Judith Reed, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said that although justice has been secured for Sara Sharif, the “ultimate tragedy is that she was killed by the very adults who should have loved and protected her”. Speaking outside the Old Bailey on Wednesday, Ms Reed said: “At the heart of this trial was Sara Sharif – a happy, outgoing and lively 10-year-old girl who was cruelly abused and murdered by the two people closest to her.

"We have all seen Sara’s smile shine out from the photos of her but everyone involved with this case will always remember the utterly horrendous injuries and brutal treatment she received in the weeks leading up to her death. We cannot begin to imagine the suffering she went through in her own family home."