Sara Sharif's father told 999 call handler he ‘beat her up'

Court hears defendant rang police after fleeing to Pakistan

- HOLLY EVANS

Sara Sharif’s father told police “I’ve killed my daughter” and that he had “legally punished” her after inflicting injuries that led to her death, a court has heard. Urfan Sharif contacted Surrey Police on 999 in the early hours of 10 August last year, after he had fled to Pakistan leaving his daughter’s body at the family home in Woking, Surrey.

Officers discovered the body of the 10-year-old under a blanket on a bunk bed. She had suffered extensive injuries in a “campaign of abuse”, which included broken bones, burns and bruising.

Jurors at the Old Bailey were played the eight-and-a-half minute recorded call, with Mr Sharif heard crying as he told the operator: “I beat her up. It wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.” Asked what had happened, he said: “I think she was naughty over the last three, four weeks and I was giving her punishment to sort her out, and I did something and she died.”

At the time of the call, he was thousands of miles away in Islamabad, having travelled there on 9 August with his two codefendants, Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and the girl’s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29. They each deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between 16 December 2022 and 9 August 2023, and will blame each other, the court heard.

Detailing the injuries Sara had suffered, prosecutor William Emlyn-Jones KC said that an examination of her body had revealed a “terrible truth”.