Sara Sharif trial: Dad said he 'can't explain' bites

For more than a week in the witness box, taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, had denied murdering his 10-year-old daughter Sara following a years-long campaign of abuse.

Sara was found dead at the family home in Woking, Surrey, last August 10, after Sharif, his wife Beinash Batool, 30, and brother Faisal Malik, 29, fled to Pakistan.

She had suffered dozens of injuries, including multiple broken bones, bites, burns, and signs she was hooded and restrained, the Old Bailey has heard.

Sharif had initially blamed Batool for Sara’s death, but on the seventh day of evidence told jurors he took “full responsibility”.

He admitted throttling her with his bare hands and battering her with a cricket bat, metal pole and mobile phone, even whacking her in the stomach as she lay dying.

He denied he had anything to do with human bite marks on her arm and domestic iron burns on her bottom.

Sara's dad Urfan Sharif (Image: Surrey Police/PA) On Thursday, Michael Ivers KC, for Malik, questioned Sharif about evidence that Sara was the second child to suffer such injuries.

He said: “What are the chances that two children you are connected with ended up with burns from a domestic iron and bite marks?”

Sharif replied: “I was not blamed for that. It wasn’t me. I did not bite.”

Mr Ivers asserted: “Of course it’s not a coincidence, you are the common denominator.

“Did you tell someone to do so? Did you have an idea how she (Sara) should be punished? Is that the truth of all of this?”

Sharif replied: “There are certain things I can’t explain. I’ve got no words.”

Mr Ivers responded: “Can you try and think of a few?”

The defendant said: “I didn’t do it, sir.”

The barrister suggested it was no coincidence either that Sharif’s various former Polish partners had alleged he would lock them up and take away their passports.

“What are the chances that you could be so unlucky all these Polish women say the same thing about you,” he said.

Referring to the jury, Mr Ivers said: “Are you a confident man, Mr Sharif? You think you can tell these people that’s all a coincidence and they will believe you?

“You know that all of these ladies completely separately are making the self-same allegation against you and you think you can brazen it out.”

Sharif claimed he did have bruises on his body during his relationship with Sara’s mother Olga.

Mr Ivers suggested that getting one of the women to withdraw her claims was “classic domestic violence” and, again, the “common denominator” was him.

Sharif replied: “Yes, sir.”

Sara Sharif (Image: Surrey Police/PA) Earlier, the defendant agreed he had a “credibility problem” because he had not told the truth to the jury during his earlier evidence.

Mr Ivers said: “The oath you took on your holy book meant nothing. Your jury walked by you for a whole week, looked at you and you looked at them, didn’t you? And when you started crying at times, was it real or not? When your eyes went wide, was it an act?”

Sharif said: “It was real. I lost my daughter.”

Mr Ivers said: “It wasn’t about that pain, it was about you seeking to deceive everyone in this room.”

Sharif replied: “No, sir. The pain is real.”

Mr Ivers suggested Sharif was not mourning his daughter but seeking to tell a “pack of lies” in court.

Sharif told jurors he could not imagine the pain Sara had endured before her death.

Mr Ivers said: “You must have seen it as you beat her with a bat? You have never actually suffered a broken bone and you know how many broken bones she suffered.

“I don’t want to upset people but she must have screamed and cried and heaven knows what and you did that and then for a whole week you tried to blame somebody else for what you did.”

Pressed on how Sara reacted when she was being hit with a bat, Sharif said: “She must have been in pain.”

Mr Ivers suggested he did not do it in front of Malik and it must have come as a “body blow” to their family in Pakistan when they read about his confession to jurors on Wednesday.

Malik, at 14 years Sharif’s junior, looked up to his older brother and neither of them were brought up with strict discipline, the court was told.

Their father was an army sergeant but he was a “kind and fairly sensitive man”, Mr Ivers said.

Sharif, Batool, and Malik, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, Surrey, deny murder and causing or allowing Sara’s death and the trial continues.