Sara Sharif's mum told by Judge to be 'grateful' to stepmum – who ended up murdering her

Sara Sharif’s father Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, were this week found guilty of the 10-year-old’s murder during a trial at the Old Bailey

A judge told Sara Sharif's birth mum to be "grateful" to her daughter's stepmum - just months before she was murdered by the same guardian after repeated failures to safeguard her.

Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, are facing life sentences after they were found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey this week. Her uncle Faisal Malik, 29, was found guilty of causing or allowing her death. Sharif, a minicab driver, fled the country with his family on August 10 last year, leaving behind the body of Sara.

She was found dead on a bed in her home in Woking, after being regularly beaten with a cricket bat and metal pole. Sara was found in the bedroom where they had left her, bearing the scars and bruises of at least 71 external injuries.

Now, heartbreaking court documents have shown how the 10-year-old girl was failed by authorities repeatedly - and lived a childhood shrouded in violence and fear. Sara was known to social services from the day she was born.

She was made subject to a child protection plan at birth because Urfan Sharif was accused of attacking three women including her mother, as well as hitting and biting two children. Yet, she was allowed to remain with her father. The innocent was beaten to death for years after taxi driver Sharif was awarded custody, despite accusations of abuse against him, jurors heard.

Surrey County Council children’s services were in contact from 2010 due to concerns of neglect and violence against one of Sara’s siblings, referred to by the court as ‘Z’ and who was found alone in a shop aged just three. Later that year, Sharif was arrested for assaulting Sara’s mother Olga Domin and hitting Z, leaving a handprint on the child’s back.

In 2011, Z told teachers ‘Daddy hit me’. But by the following year, the story had changed to ‘mummy hit me’ in the first of a series of warning signs that the children were being coerced to lie to protect Sharif.

Sara was taken into foster care in 2014 after a child told a social worker about a bite mark. She later returned to live with her father following a family court hearing in October 2019 where social services recommended Sara lived with her father because that was her preference.

Ms Domin, Sara's birth mother, was told by the judge: "It would be good if you could at least be courteous to her [Batool], be polite to her, be slightly grateful even to her."

An expert also told the court that Sara had "a really good relationship" with Batool and that she was "a point of safety" for the young girl. But within months of going to live with her father in West Byfleet, Surrey, neighbours heard banging and screaming but failed to call police.

In January 2023, Sara had begun wearing a hijab to cover up the bruises at school. Teachers noticed marks on her face and referred her to social services in March of that year, but the case was dropped within days. The following month, Sara was taken out of school and the violence against her intensified in the weeks before her death.

Tragic Sara had 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 had been burned on her buttocks with an iron and had six bite marks on her body. Sharif, who routinely beat his daughter while her wrists and ankles were tied with packaging tape, was convicted of her murder.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said questions need to be answered over the case of 10-year-old Sara Sharif who was murdered by her father and stepmother, describing the details as shocking. Speaking to broadcasters, he said: “My first response is a human response.

"This is just an awful case. It’s very hard to see, to read about, for many people who will be viewing it, 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.”