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Sara Sharif’s mother has paid a moving tribute to her “beautiful” daughter who “was taken too soon”.
Three members of the 10-year-old’s family have been found guilty over her death on Wednesday after years of horrific abuse, which saw the schoolgirl being hooded, restrained and beaten during her short life.
Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, were found guilty of her murder and her uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, was convicted of causing or allowing her death after a jury at the Old Bailey deliberated for nine hours and 46 minutes.
In a statement issued through Surrey Police following the verdicts, Sara’s mother Olga Sharif said: “My dear Sara, I ask God to please take care of my little girl, she was taken too soon.
“Sara had beautiful brown eyes and an angelic voice. Sara’s smile could brighten up the darkest room.
“Everyone who knew Sara will know her unique character, her beautiful smile and loud laugh.
“She will always be in our hearts, her laughter will bring warmth to our lives. We miss Sara very much. Love you princess.”
Sara was beaten to death four years after taxi driver Sharif was awarded custody, despite accusations of abuse against him, jurors heard.
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said Sharif had gone on to create a “culture of violent discipline”, where assaults on Sara had “become completely routine, completely normalised”.
He alleged Sharif had meant to cause her serious harm and the other two defendants took part in the abuse, encouraged or helped him.
Mr Justice Cavanagh adjourned sentencing until next Tuesday, telling jurors the case had been “extremely stressful and traumatic”.
The convictions raise questions about the past involvement of the family court and social services in Sara’s case.
Children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza called for change and said the case highlighted “profound weaknesses in our child protection system”.
She said: “Sara’s death must also bring about an immediate shift in how we protect children like her.”
The defendants had fled to Pakistan after Sara died at the family home in Woking, Surrey, on 8 August 2023.
Sharif called police when he arrived in Islamabad and confessed he had beaten her up “too much”.
Officers went to his former home and found Sara’s broken and battered body in a bunk bed, with a confession note from Sharif on the pillow.
Sara had suffered more than 25 broken bones, from being hit repeatedly with a cricket bat, metal pole and mobile phone.
She had a broken hyoid bone in her neck from being throttled, iron burns on her buttocks, boiling water burns on her feet, and human bite marks on her arm and thigh.
There was also evidence she had been bound with packaging tape and hooded during the assaults, which would have left her in excruciating pain, jurors heard.
Batool had told her sisters that Sharif would regularly “beat the crap” out of Sara over the course of more than two years, but failed to report what was going on.
By January 2023, Sara began wearing a hijab to cover up the bruises at school.
Teachers noticed marks on her face and referred her to social services in March of that year, but the case was dropped within days.
The following month, Sara was taken out of school and the violence against her intensified in the weeks before her death.
On August 8, Sara collapsed and Batool reacted by summoning Sharif home and calling her family 30 times.
Sharif’s reaction to finding his daughter lying close to death in Batool’s lap was to “whack” her in the stomach twice with a pole for “pretending”, jurors heard.
Within hours of Sara’s death, the couple were arranging flights to Pakistan for the next day for themselves and the rest of the family.
The defendants returned to the UK on 13 September 2023, leaving behind other children who had travelled with them, and were detained within minutes of a flight touching down at Gatwick airport.
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