'YES, I AM FULLY RESPONSIBLE...SHE DIED BECAUSE OF MET

Dad speaks out during Sara Sharif murder. trial

- Paul Jeeves

THE father of Sara Sharif dramatically told jurors that he "takes full responsibility" for killing the 10-year-old.

Urfan Sharif denies murder, insisting he did not mean to "harm" Sara when he bound her and beat her with a cricket bat.

The cabbie, inset, had sought to blame Sara's stepmum Beinash Batool for her injuries, claiming he was at work at the time. But on his seventh day of evidence at the Old Bailey, he was asked by Batool's defence barrister Caroline Carberry KC if he did indeed kill Sara.

Sharif, 42, replied: "Yes, she died because of me." There were gasps from the public gallery when he admitted hitting Sara with the bat and a pole, binding her with tape, breaking a bone in her neck and battering her over the head with a phone.

Sharif admitted he had tightened his hands around his daughter's neck more than once but denied he had used his belt to throttle her.

He also denied burning the schoolgirl's buttocks with an iron and biting her arm.

Batool, 30, sobbed in the dock and members of the jury wiped away tears when Sharif made his announcement yesterday morning.

Sharif accepted causing Sara a string of injuries but not the burn and bite marks found on his daughter.

He admitted causing fractures, including to a neck bone, by hitting Sara with a cricket bat.