Sara Sharif’s mother has described her daughter’s father and stepmother as “sadists” and “executioners”, in a victim impact statement read out in court.
The 10-year-old girl was found dead at her family home in Woking, Surrey, in August last year.
When her body was discovered, her father Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, had already fled to Pakistan with Sara’s uncle, her siblings and half-siblings.
Sara Sharif latest: Father and stepmother being sentenced for her murder
Last week, Urfan Sharif and Batool were found guilty of her murder following a trial at the Old Bailey.
Her uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, who lived with them, was convicted of causing or allowing her death after a jury deliberated for nine hours and 46 minutes.
Ahead of their sentencing, Sara’s mother Olga Domin had a victim impact statement read out by prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC.
Parents of most vulnerable children to lose automatic right to home education
Sara Sharif latest: Father and stepmother being sentenced for her murder
Sara Sharif: Concerns about her care were raised when she was a few days old, new details show
Ms Domin joined the hearing remotely from Poland and said: “Sara was always smiling. She had her own unique character.
“The only thing I had left to give to my daughter was to give her a beautiful Catholic funeral that she deserves.
“She is now an angel who looks down on us from heaven, she is no longer experiencing violence.
“To this day, I can’t understand how someone can be such a sadist to a child.
Addressing the defendants in the dock, she said: “You are sadists although even this word is not enough for you.
“I would say, you are executioners.”
Mr Emlyn Jones said Ms Domin had expressed a view about the sentence the defendants should receive and referred to them as “these cowards”.
👉 Tap here to follow the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts 👈
A campaign of abuse
Sara was found dead in a bunkbed at her home after her father rang the police from Pakistan to confess he had beaten her “too much”.
She had suffered more than 25 broken bones, iron burns on her bottom, scalding marks on her feet and human bites during a campaign of abuse that spanned at least two years.
Sharif also hit his daughter with a cricket bat and iron bar, throttled her and threw a mobile phone at her head.
Jurors heard how Sara would have been left in excruciating pain after regular bouts of punishment that would have seen her tied up with packaging tape and her head covered in a makeshift hood.
Read more from Sky News:
Lawyer accused of being spy loses case against MI5
Man arrested after boy dies in Porsche hit-and-run
Teen girl shoots dead teacher and classmate
Even as she lay dying in Batool’s lap on 8 August last year, Sharif, a taxi driver, hit her in the stomach for “pretending”.
Batool had told her sister that Sharif would “beat the crap” out of his daughter but she failed to do anything to stop it, even calling him home from work to hand out further punishments, the court was told.
The abuse was said to have become so “normalised” that Malik failed to act after moving in with the family in December 2022.
By January 2023, Sara began wearing a hijab to cover up her bruises at school.
Teachers twice noticed marks on Sara’s face and referred her to social services last March but the case was dropped within days and the following month she was taken out of school.
Within hours of her death, Sharif and Batool had booked flights to Pakistan for the whole family.
Follow our channel and never miss an update
The defendants only belatedly returned to the UK on 13 September last year, leaving their children behind, and were arrested within minutes of touching down at Gatwick airport.
In his trial, Sharif initially blamed Batool for the violence before accepting “full responsibility”, leaving jurors open-mouthed and tearful.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Documents later released by the family court showed that concerns were raised about Sara’s care within a week of her birth in 2013, with her parents known to social services as early as 2010.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
Surrey County Council repeatedly raised “significant concerns” that Sara was likely to suffer abuse.
But she was repeatedly returned to her parents’ care until she was placed with her father and stepmother four years before being murdered.
