Sara Sharif's father admits 'responsibility' for her death

Sara Sharif’s father has told jurors he “takes full responsibility” for the death of his 10-year-old daughter. In a dramatic appearance at the Old Bailey yesterday, the taxi driver said “I accept every single thing” while his wife, Beinash Batool, sobbed in the dock.

- HOLLY EVANS

During the early hours of 10 August last year, Mr Sharif had called Surrey Police after fleeing to Pakistan to say he had beaten his daughter “too much” for being “naughty”, and that she had died.

Despite this, he continues to deny her murder, telling the jurors: “She died because of me. I didn’t want to kill her.”

In a series of shocking admissions, jurors heard:

• Sharif had bound his daughter with brown packing tape before beating her with a pole or a cricket bat

• He admitted to repeatedly hitting her over the head with a mobile phone and tightening his hands around her neck on more than one occasion

• He accepted that he had repeatedly injured his daughter but denied that he had killed her, saying he “wasn’t thinking”

• Sharif denied using his Marks and Spencer belt to throttle her, and denied burning her buttocks and biting her arm

Previously, Mr Sharif had sought to blame Batool for killing his daughter, who was found dead in a bunkbed at the family home in Woking, Surrey, with a catalogue of injuries.

The schoolgirl suffered dozens of serious wounds including human bite marks and iron burns, as well as multiple fractures and a traumatic brain injury, jurors have heard.

Mr Sharif, Ms Batool, and Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik, 29, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, deny Sara’s murder and causing or allowing her death.