A UK court on Tuesday handed life sentences to the father and stepmother of a 10-year-old British-Pakistani girl who died after being subjected to a prolonged “campaign of torment” and “appalling abuse”.
Urfan Sharif, 43, and Benash Batool, 30, must serve at least 40 and 33 years respectively for the murder of Sara Sharif, who suffered years of horrific brutality from the age of six.
London’s ancient bailey court heard her body was found covered in wounds inflicted with an electric press and boiling water, and broken bones and burn wounds.
Sentencing, Judge John Cavanagh said Sara had been subjected to “acts of extraordinary cruelty” but Sharif and Batool had shown “not the slightest remorse”.
They had treated Sara “worthlessly” and “like a servant” since she was a little girl. And because she was not a typical Batool child, the stepmother failed to nurture her, she said.
“It is hard to imagine the suffering, pain and injury this brutal campaign must have caused Sarah,” she told them, her voice sometimes trembling.
“This helpless child was beaten repeatedly with extraordinary force.”
Sarah was beaten with a metal pole and cricket bat and “bound” with a “peculiar combination of partition tape, rope and a plastic sack” over her head.
A hole was cut in the sack so she could breathe and she was made to soil herself in diapers as she was prevented from using the toilet.
Sarah was found dead in her bed in her family home in 2023. Post-mortem examinations revealed she had 71 fresh wounds on her body and at least 25 broken bones.
Cavanagh described Sarah as a “wonderful little young lady” who was “fiery” and loved to sing and dance.
On the day Sarah died, Sharif struck Sarah twice in the stomach with the metal leg of a high chair while she lay unconscious on her stepmother’s lap.
‘Sadists’
Sharif and Batool were found guilty last week after a 10-week trial.
Her uncle Faisal Malik, 29, was found guilty of causing or allowing her death. He was jailed for 16 years.
Sarah’s birth mother, Olga, said in an explanation given to the court that her daughter was “currently a blessed angel who watches over us from heaven”.
She said, “To this day I cannot understand how someone could be so evil to a child”.
Police described the case as “the most disturbing and upsetting” they had ever encountered.
The day after Sara’s death, the three adults fled their home in Woking, southwest of London, and fled to Pakistan with the five other children.
Sara’s father, a taxi-driver, reported Sara’s death to police from Islamabad, defending himself by leaving a handwritten note saying he had no intention of killing his daughter.
After a month on the run, the three returned to the UK and were captured after landing on a plane. The five other children remain in Pakistan.
There is outrage in Britain that the cruel treatment of Sara was overlooked by social authorities, when her father removed her from school after her death four months ago.
Sharif and his first wife Olga were known to social services.
In 2019, a judge ruled that Sharif should be given the care of Sara and her older brother, despite having a history of abuse.
Her teacher told the court how she later arrived at class wearing a hijab, which she used to hide marks on her body, which she refused to disclose.
‘Terror’
Around March 2023, after seeing wounds on her face, Sara’s school referred the case to the child administration, who investigated the incident but took no action.
In April 2023, Sharif told the school that from now on Sara would be taught at home.
Addressing Sharif, the judge said his behaviour with his daughter was “nothing short of horrific” and that it was “difficult to imagine” how scared she must have been.
“You fully intended to hurt her and to hurt her severely… you wanted her life to be filled with suffering and despair,” he said.
The case is the latest in a series of child cruelty cases that have sparked open conflict with doctors’ repeated promises to avoid aid tragedies.