The innocent faces who should have been saved by social services

Fears that more children will end up suffering the same unimaginable fate as Sara Sharif are growing after a shocking report found 485 children died or were injured in abuse cases last year. 

Sara, 10, was brutally murdered by her father Urfan Sharif and stepmother Beinash Batool at their home in Woking, Surrey, in August 2023. 

The evil pair were found guilty of her murder yesterday, after the schoolgirl suffered years of abuse including being bitten, burnt with an iron, strangled until her neck broke and battered with a cricket bat, metal pole and rolling pin. 

Sara was just one of the many innocents 'let down' by authorities in recent years - as data from the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel revealed 485 children either died or were seriously injured from abuse between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024. 

One harrowing campaign of abuse saw nine-year-old Alfie Steele beaten, 'held' in cold bath water, locked out of the house and whipped with belts by his evil stepfather Dirk Howell, while his mother Carla Scott turned a blind eye. 

Despite little Alfie being on the radar of social services since he was a young boy, a catalogue of potential opportunities to save him were missed before his death in February 2021, when he was found unresponsive in cold bathwater. 

Six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes was poisoned, starved and murdered by his stepmother after months of torture and abuse in June 2020, with his heartbroken family accusing social services failing the child. 

Arthur's stepmother, Emma Tustin, coached him on what to say before a planned visit by Solihull social services two months before his death. 

Child protection commissioners and panelists have called for the design of the youth protection system to change, calling for the implementation of multi-agency children teams in every local authority. 

Dame Rachel de Souza, Children's Commissioner for England, said 10-year-old Sara was 'let down' after being taken out of school to be homeschooled - despite teachers and social services seeing the warning signs of abuse. 

Speaking on LBC this morning, Dame Rachel branded it 'madness' that children at risk of abuse at home should be taken out of school, which should act as a 'safeguard'. 

'There are other Sara Sharifs out there and there are very clear actions that need to be taken,' she said.  

'I am filled with fury and I am deeply concerned and I believe the safety net that should've been around her.' 

Dame Rachel said she is pushing for 'change for these children now' through a new Children and Wellbeing Bill.   

Authorities failed to identify Sara was at risk for years before her broken and lifeless body was discovered in her bunk bed at the family home. 

Her father and stepmother had already fled the UK to Pakistan when Sharif called police to tell them Sara's body had been left in her bed, alongside a note confessing to beating her.  

The 10-year-old's shocking case has raised questions about failures by police, social services and Sara's school, who missed 15 opportunities to save the vulnerable pupil before the child was savagely battered to death by her father. 

An independent safeguarding review has been ordered into her murder which will examine the circumstances in which a family court judge decided to place the victim in the custody of her cruel father and stepmother in a fateful decision that ultimately would cost her life.

Over the following years Sara suffered an unimaginable ordeal at the hands of the pair, who bound her arms and legs, beat her with a cricket bat, metal pole and rolling pin, strangled her until her neck broke, burnt her with an iron and bit her. 

Panel chairwoman Annie Hudson, of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, reflected on Sara's 'harrowing' case as she said the design of the child protection system must change, calling for the implementation of multi-agency children teams in every local authority.

The schoolgirl's father had repeated contact with Surrey Social Services and police, and Sara's school made a referral to social services five months before her death but the case was closed within days.

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Ms Hudson told BBC Breakfast: 'I just really want to acknowledge the harrowing story about what's happened to Sara and the trial this week, and it's important that the perpetrators of what is just unimaginable cruelty have been brought to justice.

'It is important that, in time, there will be a forensic and robust examination of what happened and how well agencies work together and learning from that.'

In 2020, one-year-old Star Hobson was murdered by her mother's girlfriend Savannah Brockhill, with Bradford Council admitting it failed to prevent the toddler's death. 

Of the 330 serious incident notifications received by the panel in the year from April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024, almost half were for children who died (46 per cent) and more than a third involved babies under one.

More than half of incidents involving the death or serious harm of a child under five involved a parent or relevant adult with a mental health condition (57 per cent), while 16 per cent of children died by suicide - with 92 per cent of the children who took their own lives recorded as having a mental health condition.

The report highlighted the need to support children with mental health needs, with more than a fifth involved in the notifications found to have a mental health condition - most of them aged between 11 and 17 but the youngest aged six.

It also called for greater measures to improve partnerships between adult and children mental health services to protect pre-school aged children whose parents suffer from poor mental health.

According to the data, 43 per cent of incidents featured a parent with an addiction to, or who misuses, alcohol and/or drugs.

Almost a quarter of serious incidents occurred outside the home by people who were not a member of the child's family, including gang violence, child sexual abuse and child criminal exploitation.

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On the most important issue identified from the report, Ms Hudson told BBC Breakfast: 'Too often there are breakdowns in communication and the way in which information about what's happening in a child's life is not shared and put together in terms of the pieces of a jigsaw and understanding what's happened in terms of the history of the life of a child or a family.'

She said agencies involved in child protection are often working in their own 'silos and parameters' and highlighted the need for teachers, nurses, doctors, social workers, police and other professionals to share information to understand what is happening in a child's life.

The panel is calling on the Government to implement multi-agency children teams in every local authority, creating 'one single team or point' where child protection concerns will be investigated.

Maria Neophytou, interim chief executive at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, called on the Government to ensure family support services were more accessible and affordable.

'It is always deeply disturbing to see how many children have died or been seriously harmed as a consequence of abuse and neglect in the last year,' she said.

'This report acts as a powerful reminder of the tragic consequences when children's best interests are not placed at the heart of the decisions that directly affect them, whether by frontline safeguarding partners in health, children's social care or policing, or by Government officials and policymakers.'

Alfie Steele, nine 

Alfie Steele, nine, was beaten, 'held' in cold bath water, locked out of the house or in a shed and whipped with belts during a 'cruel and sinister' regime of correction and abuse by his stepfather and mother during the Covid lockdown. 

Jurors heard concerned neighbours and even passers-by in the street reported the treatment doled out by Dirk Howell, 41 and Carla Scott, 35 - who they said turned a blind eye - to police, social services, the council and Alfie's school. 

But despite the boy being on the radar of social services since he was very little, a catalogue of potential opportunities to save him were missed.

The 'gorgeous' schoolboy was found unresponsive in cold bathwater at the new-build housing association property where he lived with Scott and Howell in Droitwich, Worcestershire, in February 2021 during the third national lockdown.

Scott's neighbours in Droitwich said Alfie's death was 'avoidable', as they condemned social workers and other authorities for failing to intervene sooner, with one calling for a public inquiry into the failings.

One neighbour who reported seeing Alfie being screamed at by Howell in the garden said: 'All of us living in the houses that back on to their garden reported it to the police.

'We reported (the defendants) to the police, social services, the school where Alfie went and even the housing association but nothing was done.

'On one occasion, we saw a police officer in one of the upstairs windows looking out at the garden so we knew the police had gone in. They must have seen the conditions they were living in.'

Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, six 

Little Arthur Labinjo-Hughes was murdered by his stepmother Emma Tustin at their home in Solihull in June 2020 after being poisoned, starved and beaten in a sickening campaign of abuse.

An independent review for Solihull council into how Arthur's case was handled identified three opportunities within nine days which were missed by police and social services and could have ultimately prevented his murder. 

Chiefly among them is the existence of photographs of the little boy's brutal injuries, which the report said 'could and should have changed the course of this case' but local agencies failed to act on.

The report also questioned why more was not done sooner by local agencies, why social workers who made a home visit failed to spot Arthur's injuries and why, after receiving the photograph of the boy's battered body, the case was closed.

Twisted Tustin was handed a life sentence with a minimum of 29 years for his murder; while Arthur's father Thomas Hughes is serving a 24-year prison term after being convicted of manslaughter for encouraging the killing. 

Star Hobson, one 

Baby Star Hobson bled to death after being kicked or punched by her stepmother Savannah Brockhill with 'massive' force at home in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in September 2020.

During a seven-week trial the jury heard Star endured months of assaults and psychological harm before suffering 'utterly catastrophic' injuries. 

Bradford Council admitting it failed to prevent the toddler's death, and had a serious staff retention problem in its children's services, according to data uncovered by a Sky News freedom of information request.

Keanu Williams, two 

Keanue Williams, two, was beaten to death by his mother, Rebecca Shuttleworth, in Ward End, Birmingham. 

In October 2013, a serious case review identified social care workers, the police and health professionals as culpable after 'a number of significant missed opportunities' were missed to prevent the death of the little boy. 

Keanu, who died on 9 January 2011, sustained 37 separate injuries. Birmingham City Council's children's services department was subsequently branded 'a national disgrace' by Sir Michael Wilshaw, Ofsted's chief inspector at the time. 

Abiyah Yasharahyalah, three 

Abiyah Yasharahyalah, three, lay buried in his parents' back garden in Birmingham for two years before his body was discovered by police. 

Tai Yasharahyalah, 42, and his wife Naiyahmim 43, who were unanimously convicted by jurors of causing or allowing their son's death through neglect at Coventry Crown Court last week, were accused of 'breathtaking arrogance and cruelty' by prosecuting KC Jonas Hankin. 

The couple were left free to put their beliefs - including a rejection of western medicine, strict veganism and the observance of 'slick law', a system adapted from the culture of Nigeria's Igbo people - before the wellbeing of their son.