Sara Sharif trial latest: Father admits lying to blame wife for tying and beating daughter before brutal death

In another tense moment of cross-examination, Sharif suggested it “kids” who had inflicted a large burn across Sara’s buttocks, which had been caused by a domestic iron.

“To do that to Sara to press and hold an iron across both of her buttocks, would it take two people to do that?,” prosecutor Wiliam Emlyn-Jones KC said.

“Would someone have to hold her down, would someone have to restrain her? There’s no sign of her wriggling around while being branded by an iron. So who was it?”.

“It must have been kids,” Sharif responded.

“How low will you stoop? An injury that will have caused her dreadful lasting pain that was still unhealed, open and gaping when she died. An injury said to have been at least two weeks old, at least two to six weeks or more, made worse by the fact she was being made to wear a dirty nappy contaminated with urine and faeces,” Mr Emlyn-Jones said.

On Thursday, prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC insisted all the defendants must have known what was going on in the house.

He said Batool knew Sharif would deliver a beating on the many occasions she called him home because Sara had been “sick” or “naughty” but she did it anyway.

“She is setting her up for a beating. She’s making the call that makes the beating happen, she is calling it on and she is responsible for that, isn’t she?” he said.

Here are the key points from Urfan Sharif’s questioning in the dock on Thursday:

• Sharif admitted he had lied during earlier evidence, saying that “everything” that he said was wrong. He said: “I did lie. You can’t imagine my pain, I’m a bad dad, I’m a very bad dad but I’m still a father.”
• Sharif admitted trying to blame Beinash Batool, his wife and Sara’s stepmother, for Sara’s death. He accused her of tying up and beating his daughter. He was asked whether he “lied and then tried to implicate someone else,” to which he confirmed: “Yes sir.”
• Repeated accusations of domestic abuse were no more than a coincidence, Sharif insisted. He has been accused of abusive and controlling behaviour in three previous relationships.
• Sharif maintained that he had only used a cricket bat to hit Sara once, and that he had not hit her in the head. When asked to explain how Sara died, he said: “I can’t explain.”
• Sharif reiterated that he “takes responsibility” for Sara’s death. “I’ve been selfish blaming other people for something they didn’t do,” he said.
• Sharif told the court he had been “nasty” and “mean” with his daughter.

Sara Sharif suffered 25 unexplained fractures in multiple locations across her body, as well as an “extremely rare” neck injury that a radiologist had never seen before in a child, a court has heard.

Professor Owen Arthurs, who conducted an examination of the 10-year-old’s body, concluded that these had been most likely caused by “multiple episodes of blunt force trauma inflicted over several weeks”.

Prosecutor William Emlyn-Jones KC has begun to question Sara Sharif’s father on Thursday afternoon.

In his final stage of cross-examination by his brother’s lawyer Michael Ivers KC, he insisted he had returned back to the UK in September 2023 for his daughter.

He agreed that he had not carried out his abuse in front of his brother, nor had they informed his parents in Pakistan of Sara’s abuse, as this would have “gone down like a lead balloon”.

Urfan Sharif once again admitted responsibility for Sara Sharif’s death on Thursday, after giving conflicting versions of events on both Wednesday and Thursday.

Under cross examination, he said that he had been aware of Sara’s injuries and the full extent of them once he was arrested and interviewed by the police.

Giving a contrasting version from Wednesday’s admissions, Sharif maintained that he had only used the cricket bat once on his daughter and had not hit her on the head.

When repeatedly asked to explain how Sara had died in court earlier today, Sharif responded: “I can’t explain.”

Speaking of his family’s reaction in Pakistan, Mr Ivers KC said: “It will have come as a body blow to all of them when they read it yesterday because you’ve lied to everyone haven’t you?”

Sharif nodded and confirmed in response.

“You’re busy pointing the blame at everyone else but yourself, is that fair?”, to which Sharif said: “Yes sir.”

He also claimed that on the day of her death, he had seen Sara sitting watching TV while eating snacks, and denied that he had been forced to return from Pakistan due to “pressure” placed upon his family.