Sara Sharif began to wear a hijab to school in the last part of her life. The prosecution have said no other women in her family wore the hijab and the garment was intended to conceal injuries. Photo / Surrey Police
Sara Sharif began to wear a hijab to school in the last part of her life. The prosecution have said no other women in her family wore the hijab and the garment was intended to conceal injuries. Photo / Surrey Police
The father of Sara Sharif has told jurors he “takes full responsibility” for the death of his 10-year-old daughter.
Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, made the admission under cross-examination as his wife Beinash Batool, 30, sobbed in the dock of the Old Bailey on Wednesday.
Previously, Sharif had sought toblame Batool for killing his daughter but in a dramatic admission, he told jurors: “I accept every single thing.”
Sharif, Batool and Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik, 29, formerly of Hammond Rd, Woking, deny Sara’s murder and causing or allowing her death.
Cross-examining for Batool, Caroline Carberry KC had asked Sharif about a note he left beside the body of his daughter before leaving for Pakistan.
In it, he wrote “love you Sara” on the first page followed by the words: “Whoever see this note it’s me Urfan Sharif who killed my daughter by beating.”
Carberry asked if he did indeed kill his daughter by beating and Sharif replied: “Yes, she died because of me.”
The barrister said: “In the weeks before she died she suffered multiple fractures to her body, didn’t she, and it was you who inflicted those injuries?”
The defendant replied: “Yes.”
Sharif accepted causing the injuries, bar burn and bite marks and added: “I take responsibility. I take full responsibility.”
He admitted causing fractures to Sara by hitting her with a cricket bat or pole.
Asked if he broke Sara’s hyoid neck bone, he repeated: “I can take full responsibility. I accept every single thing.”
Urfan Sharif. Photo / Surrey Police
Carberry went on: “I suggest on the night of the 6th of August you badly beat Sara.”
Speaking barely above a whisper in the witness box, Sharif replied: “I accept everything.”
‘I wasn’t thinking’
But following a lunch break, Sharif maintained he was not guilty of murder and told jurors he did not “intend” to harm or kill his daughter.
Addressing the defendant, Carberry KC said: “You understood and you still understand that by accepting that you beat Sara to death and in doing so you intended to do her really serious harm you are guilty of murder?”
