Sara Sharif’s father has told jurors he “takes full responsibility” for killing the 10-year-old after brutally beating her, as he stands trial for her murder.
In a dramatic admission at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, Urfan Sharif, 42, told jurors “I accept every single thing”, while his wife and co-defendant, Beinash Batool, sobbed in the dock.
The taxi driver confessed to hitting the schoolgirl with a cricket bat as she was bound with packaging tape as well as to repeatedly throttling her with his bare hand – and to hitting her with a metal pole as she lay dying.
Despite this, he continues to deny her murder, telling the court: “She died because of me. I didn’t want to kill her.”
During the early hours of 10 August last year, 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.
Previously, Sharif had sought to blame Batool for killing Sara, who was found dead in a bunkbed at the family home in Woking, Surrey, with a catalogue of serious injuries, including human bite marks and iron burns, the court has heard.
Sharif, Batool, and Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, all formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, Surrey, deny murder and causing or allowing the 10-year-old’s death and the trial continues.
Sara Sharif’s father confesses to killing schoolgirl – but continues to deny her murder
Sara Sharif’s father has confessed to killing the 10-year-old but insisted he did not mean to “harm” her as he continues to deny her murder.
Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, had sought to blame Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, for a catalogue of injuries, claiming he was out at work when his daughter was being abused.
On the seventh day of his evidence at the Old Bailey, he told jurors he took “full responsibility” for what happened but did not intend to hurt his daughter.
He went on to admit hitting Sara with a cricket bat as she was bound with packaging tape.
He repeatedly throttled her with his bare hands, breaking the hyoid bone in her neck, and battered her over the head with a mobile phone, he said.
He denied burning her buttocks with an iron, biting her arm or tightening a belt around her neck, the Old Bailey heard.
Tara Cobham14 November 2024 07:00
