Neighbours of ten-year-old Sara Sharif heard “gut wrenching” screams and the sounds of smacking in the years before she was found dead, the Old Bailey has heard.Sara suffered a campaign of violent abuse within the family home before she was found dead by police, having suffered a catalogue of appalling injuries including broken bones and iron burns.Courts correspondant Tristan Kirk reports.
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00:00On the 10th of August, 2023, ten-year-old Sara Sharif was found dead in the upstairs
00:06bedroom of her family home in Surrey. She had been subjected to an appalling catalogue
00:12of abuse in the weeks, months and even years before she died. Suffering broken bones, burns
00:20from an iron, she was tied up and she was repeatedly abused and bruised. The question
00:27for a jury at the Old Bailey in London is who was responsible for that violence and
00:32ultimately for her murder. Her father, Irfan Sharif, her stepmother, Bainash Batool and
00:39her uncle, Faisal Malik are all on trial accused of murder. The court is hearing evidence from
00:45neighbours who heard piercing, gut-wrenching screams coming from the Sharif household.
00:53They heard signs of rattling, banging, clattering and smacking. Teachers at Sara's school say
01:02they noticed bruises on her face. They believe that a hijab was put over the bruises in order
01:10to cover up signs of that abuse. When Sara's body was discovered, left behind also as the
01:17family fled to Pakistan, was a letter written by Sara's father. In it, he apparently confessed
01:24to the murder. He said he had subjected his daughter to beatings and, in his words, he
01:31had beaten her too much. In a call to police from Pakistan, he again said he was responsible
01:38for her death. He said that she had been naughty and he had been beating her as a punishment.
01:45Now on trial, Irfan Sharif says he was not responsible for the murder and it was in fact
01:52Sara's stepmother who was responsible for the violence, for the abuse and ultimately
01:58for her death. The prosecution say that all three defendants, father, stepmother and uncle
02:05are guilty of murder. They are pointing the finger of blame at each other and Faisal Malik
02:12says although he lived in the house, he had no idea what was happening to his niece. Sharif,
02:18Batool, Malik all deny charges of murder and allowing or causing the death of a child.
02:26The trial continues.