Sara Sharif's killers start life sentences to shouts of 'evil'

The pair were described as 'executioners' by Sara's mother

- HOLLY EVANS

Sara Sharif's father and stepmother have been jailed for life for repeatedly inflicting pain and trauma during a "campaign of abuse" which resulted in the 10-year-old's death.

With his voice shaking, the judge described her treatment as “nothing short of gruesome” as he outlined the horrifying injuries she endured while she was tortured by her family members.

The pair learned their fate after Sara’s mother, Olga Domin, who lives in Poland, called them “sadists” and “executioners”.

Surrey Police found Sara dead in a bunkbed at her home in Woking, Surrey, on 10 August last year, after her father Urfan Sharif rang police from Pakistan to confess he had beaten her “too much” for being “naughty”.

Appearing yesterday at the Old Bailey, taxi driver Sharif, 43, was jailed for a minimum of 40 years while Beinash Batool, 30, was handed a minimum 33-year sentence after they were both convicted last week.

There were cheers and applause from the public gallery as the sentences were delivered, with one person heard to say “evil”.

Facing the bowed-down defendants, Mr Justice John Cavanagh said: “Sara’s death was the culmination of years of neglect, frequent assaults, and what can only be described as the torture of this small child, mainly, but not entirely, at the hands of you, her father, Urfan Sharif.”

Describing it as “almost inconceivable”, he said the abuse happened in plain sight in front of the family, including Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik, who was jailed for 16 years for causing or allowing her death.

“The courts at the Old Bailey have been witness to many accounts of awful crimes, but few can have been more terrible than the account of the despicable treatment of this poor child that the jury in this case have had to endure,” the judge said.