In Great Britain, a trial was held of the killers of a ten-year-old girl – they turned out to be people close to her, her own father and stepmother. The details of the crime are amazing.
10-year-old Sarah Sharif, a British woman of Pakistani origin, died from torture and severe beatings on August 8, 2023. The child's killers were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Urfan Sharif, 43, must spend at least 40 years in prison and his wife Beinash Batool, 30, 33 years before they can be paroled. The girl's uncle, 29-year-old Faisal Malik, received 16 years in prison for allowing the child's death, but was found not guilty of murder.
The high-profile case, which shocked two countries, Britain and Pakistan, was followed by journalists from leading media – BBC Sky News, The Guardian. They tell the details of a brutal crime.
Sarah Sharif was born on January 11, 2013 in Slough, Berkshire. Her father Urfan Sharif moved to the UK from Pakistan in 2001 and worked as a taxi driver, while her mother Olga emigrated from Poland. The family had two children. In 2015, Urfan and Olga divorced, the children remained to live with their mother. In 2019, their father received custody of them.
Thus, Sarah and her brother moved to the city of Woking, Surrey, and began to live with their father, stepmother, uncle and Urfan’s four children from his new marriage. However, life in their father’s large family did not bring them either happiness or joy.
The child's killers are his own father and stepmother.
In June 2022, the school noticed Sarah's black eye, and in March 2023, bruises on her chin. The teachers contacted social services, but they decided not to intervene.
In April 2023, the father took his daughter out of school, justifying his decision with alleged “bullying for wearing a hijab,” and transferred her to home schooling. And on August 8, the police found the girl dead, with numerous injuries, including:
- numerous bone fractures throughout the body,
- traces of bites and iron burns,
- evidence on the body that in recent months the girl was kept tied up for a long time.
Urfan, his wife and brother fled to Pakistan, and Surrey police began working with international partners. In August, Pakistani police received a request from Interpol to search for a trio of criminals. On September 13, 2023, the suspects returned from Pakistan to Britain and were immediately arrested at the airport.
At first all three denied their guilt. Sarah's father said that his “crazy” wife was to blame for everything and denied the accusations of beating his daughter, which the court heard:
“I shouldn't have believed her. I didn't know I was living with an evil and psychotic woman.”
Indeed, the stepmother treated Sarah like a servant, but sometimes, the judge noted, she showed kindness to her and “treated her wounds.” During the investigation, it became known that Beinash Batoul herself suffered from Urfan’s aggression, experienced difficulties raising 6 children, and was also subjected to violence as a child.
In November 2024, the father admitted to killing his daughter. The court announced the verdict – life imprisonment for Sarah's father and stepmother. The verdict notes that Sarah was a very brave girl with an indestructible spirit and survived very severe beatings and torture. Chief Inspector Craig Emmerson said Sarah's life was cut short by “horrible violence” and the girl's mother, Olga, called the defendants “sadists and torturers.”
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