'I killed my daughter': Sara Sharif’s' 'cruel' father's 999 call
Sara Sharif’s father confessed he beat up his daughter too much and he killed her.
Through tears, Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of murdering his daughter, told police he was “giving her punishment” to “sort her out”, adding “I did something and she died”.
Jurors were told that the police non-emergency 101 number had received the call at 2.47am on August 10 2023, two days after Sara died.
Her father is on trial accused of her murder alongside Sara’s stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 29.
The defendants, of Hammond Road in Woking, have denied Sara’s murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16 2022 and August 9 2023.
The ten-year-old school girl was found dead in a bunk bed at home by police on August 10, 2023, following a call from Sharif in Pakistan saying he “beat her up too much” for being “naughty”, the court has heard.
Sara Sharif's father's 999 call
Listen to Sara Sharif's father's 999 call in full
Sara Sharif’s father sobbed as he confessed to killing his daughter, saying “I’m a cruel father” in a phone call to police, a court has heard.
During the call from Pakistan, which lasted eight minutes and 34 seconds, the taxi driver can be heard crying as he confessed to killing his daughter, refusing to reveal his location and saying he would hand himself in to Woking police station.
In the phone call, played to jurors on Tuesday, an emotional Sharif asked the operator to write down his address, spelling out his postcode, and telling them to “send someone” to his home on Hammond Road, Woking.
In the recording, Sharif said Sara had been “naughty” over the last three to four weeks and he was “giving her punishment” to “sort her out”, adding “I did something and she died”.
Earlier in the call, the operator can be heard asking Sharif “is everything okay?” to which he responds: “Nothing is okay.”
At one point, Sharif can be heard getting so emotional that the operator says he cannot understand what he is saying and tells him to “take a deep breath”.
Sharif continued: “I did legally punish my daughter and she died.
“I left the home in a panic.
“I killed my daughter. I killed my daughter.”
Sharif can then be heard telling the operator he left his front door keys under the mat and repeatedly asking police to go to his address.
He said: “My daughter’s dead. I panicked and left home.”
The operator then asks who killed Sharif’s daughter, to which he responds “It’s me. Her dada.”
Sharif added: “I beat her up, it wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.”
He then said Sara was not breathing when he left the house and he failed to resuscitate her using CPR.
During the call Sharif spells out his and his daughter’s full names and dates of birth.
The operator asked whether the 10-year-old was bleeding anywhere, to which her father responded “no”.
“She is dead, I am telling you,” he added.
Sharif can be heard refusing to answer questions about his location at the time of the call, telling the operator he left his car at the Heathrow terminal three car park.
When asked where he was, Sharif responded: “I cannot give more detail, I promise I’ll come back.
“I’ll face the death sentence.”
Sara faced 'a campaign of abuse' before her death
It is alleged Sara had died two days before following a campaign of abuse and within hours the defendants had booked a flight out of the country.
Traces of Sara Sharif’s blood were found on the kitchen floor and on objects including a hoover and a cricket bat during a police search of the family home, the court heard.
Giving evidence in court today, their former neighbour Rebecca Spencer said she heard the noises “from the moment” the Sharif family moved into a flat on Eden Grove in West Byfleet in around 2018 to 2019, prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC told jurors.
Reading a statement from Ms Spencer, Mr Emlyn Jones said: “On the occasions I would hear these banging and rattling sounds, they would often be accompanied by the sounds of a child crying or a screaming, followed by complete silence.
“On those occasions I can only describe the silence as ‘deathly quiet’ and I cannot even imagine what had happened to make the crying or screaming child become immediately silent.”
In March 2020, another neighbour Chloe Redwin allegedly heard loud smacking followed by “gut-wrenching screams” of a young girl and the mother shouting “shut up”, jurors heard.
Sara's school teachers told the court they noticed bruising in June 2022 and had spoken to the Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool about a bruise on March 28 2023.
Her year four and five teacher Helen Simmons described her as a “happy child” who was sometimes “sassy”, jurors were told.
Key dates and details in Sara Sharif's death
January 2023
From last January, Sara began to wear a hijab to school which the court heard was unusual as she had never worn one before and neither did anyone else in the family.
March 2023
The school recorded Sara had a bruise under her left eye in June 2022 and then in March 2023, a bruise on her chin and a dark mark on her right eye.
They contacted Children’s Single Point of Access for advice, and it was agreed that a referral to social services was needed, Mr Emlyn Jones said.
April 2023
Father Urfan Sharif informs Sara’s school that she will be home-schooled with immediate effect.
April 6, 2023
Sara and her family move to a three-bedroom house in Hammond Road in the Horsell area of Woking.
July 2023
Stepmother Beinash Batool allegedly bought 18 rolls of parcel tape online within nine days, jurors were told in the weeks before the murder
Police, who searched the Sharif house found “plastic bags wrapped up with parcel tape”, in the wheelie bins some of which had traces of Sara’s blood on, prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said.
He continued: “The prosecution suggest ... they are homemade hoods. They had been placed over Sara’s head, we suggest, and then taped in place.”
The trial heard that fingerprints allegedly belonging to her father, Urfan Sharif, were found on one of the bags that was tested by forensics and on the non-adhesive side of a bit of parcel tape.
August 6, 2023
Neighbours heard a “single high-pitched scream” of “someone in pain” days before Sara Sharif died, jurors were told.
However, a woman had recalled that “she heard a noise that she considered very much out of the ordinary run of the noise from a family house” on August 6 2023, the prosecutor said.
He continued: “It was a single high-pitched scream, which lasted a couple of seconds and stopped suddenly.
August 8, 2023
8.38pm – A child sends a WhatsApp message to a school friend labelled “urgent”, saying that Sara had “just passed away”.
9.07pm – Beinash Batool, Sara’s stepmother, calls Southall Travel agency to ask about flights to Pakistan but after 50 minutes the call ends without flights being arranged.
10pm – Sharif contacts Nadeem Riaz, who works for a money transfer business, and says he needs a flight to Pakistan the next day.
August 9, 2023
9.25am – CCTV captures Sharif and his family arriving at Heathrow Airport to take a flight to Pakistan at 2pm.
August 10, 2023
2.47am – Sharif has arrived in Pakistan and phones police in the UK, saying: “I’ve killed my daughter. I legally punished her, and she died. She was naughty. I beat her up, it wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.”
Police go to the family home in Woking and find Sara’s body in a bed with a note by the pillow in Sharif’s handwriting.
August 15, 2023
A post-mortem examination is undertaken which concludes Sara’s death was not a natural one. There were alleged signs of blunt force trauma inflicted over several weeks, bruises, iron burns to the buttocks, restraint marks and suspected human bite marks, jurors heard.
September 6, 2023
Sharif and Batool appear in a short video clip provided to and broadcast by Sky News in which Batool refers to Sara’s death as an “incident”.
September 13, 2023
Sharif, Batool and Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik take a flight into Gatwick and are met by police who arrest them on the plane.
October 14, 2024
The three defendants, of Woking, Surrey, go on trial at the Old Bailey, having denied murder and causing or allowing Sara’s death.
Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...