Revealed: Identity of convicted killer ‘who viciously attacked Sara Sharif’s father with a tuna lid’

Sara Sharif’s killer father had his throat slashed open by a notorious double murderer, it has been reported.

Steven Sansom – who killed Sarah Mayhew, 38, last year and cut her body up with power tools – allegedly attacked Urfan Sharif on New Year’s Day with a tuna can lid. 

The 46-year-old, who also murdered a taxi driver when he was 19, is said to have cornered Sharif in his cell with the help of another inmate, sources told The Sun. 

It is alleged the prisoners at HMP Belmarsh were sickened by the horrific murder of Sharif’s 10-year-old daughter Sara at the family home in Woking, Surrey, last year. 

The schoolgirl was hooded, bitten, burned and eventually beaten to death before her body was found with at least 71 injuries after the family fled to Pakistan.

A prison insider has now claimed: ‘Everyone is talking about how it was Sansom who got to Sharif.

‘He and another inmate apparently pounced on him as he walked back to the wing after a shower, forced him into a cell and slashed him.

‘The other bloke, who is also a murderer, held the door shut.’

Sansom is facing a life sentence for the murder of Ms Mayhew whose legs, arms and head were found in a field in Croydon last April. 

Her torso was later discovered in Mitcham – some nine miles away from where the rest of her body was found.

Sansom, who was known to Ms Mayhew, pleaded guilty to the horrific crime in September and is due to be sentenced this month. 

He was previously convicted in 1999 for the murder of cab driver Terrence Boyle, 59, who was stabbed in the throat and back. 

Sansom had called Mr Boyle’s firm, Kendal Cars in Station Road, Croydon for a lift from East Croydon station to his home in New Addington.

But he knifed him as the car pulled up and escaped with just £25.

Following Sansom’s alleged attack on New Year’s Day, it is now believed that Sharif has a ‘target on his back’ — and he will be ‘always be looking over his shoulder’.

A source told The Sun: ‘Other inmates will not stop because he has been attacked once. 

‘Just look at people like Ian Huntley, who is another child killer, and has been attacked multiple times inside.’

They added that prison staff will do their utmost to ensure his safety, which could include isolating him from other prisoners. 

Sharif and Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool were found guilty of Sara’s murder last month, while her uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, was convicted of causing or allowing a child’s death.

Sharif was jailed for 40 years, while Batool, 30, was jailed for 33 years and Malik was jailed for 16 years.

The Prison Service and the Metropolitan Police previously confirmed officers are investigating an assault at Belmarsh on New Year’s Day.

A Prison Serve spokesperson said: ‘It would be inappropriate to comment further while they investigate.’

Reports suggested the murderer suffered cuts to his neck and face and received medical treatment inside the prison.

A prison source was quoted as saying: ‘Urfan was sliced up badly in his cell by two others who rushed in. It was planned and they used a makeshift weapon — made from the lid of a tin of tuna.

‘He was sliced in the neck and face, and is still in healthcare and in a very bad way.

‘He was lucky to survive, has had to have stitches and will have scars as a permanent reminder of the attack. The guards tried to keep him safe because he obviously had a target on his back after the case was such big news.

‘Something like this was always on the cards, and an attack was probably only a matter of time.

‘Sharif has tried to keep his head down since coming into the jail, but word quickly got round about who he was.

‘Inmates were not happy he is in there with them and, although the other prisoners are in for heinous crimes, a lot of them don’t like people who attack children. A lot of them are saying how it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy.’  

Former prison governor Vanessa Frake spoke to The Mirror about the hierarchy in UK prisons.

She said murderers, rapists, or those who molest children are considered to be ‘the lowest of the low’.

She highlighted the abuse Sara suffered and said Urfan Sharif, Beinash Batool and Faisal Malik would not be able to hide from their crimes behind bars.

As Sara’s abusers were sentenced at the Old Bailey in December last year, her  grieving mother Olga Domin said she could not comprehend the level of sadism inflicted on her daughter.

In a moving victim impact statement, she 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.’

Ms Domin said of Sharif, Batool and Malik: ‘You are sadists although even this word is not enough for you. I would say, you are executioners.’  

The court heard how Sara had suffered violence for years with a variety of weapons including being scalded with boiling liquid when she was restrained, being beaten with a cricket bat, being hit with a metal pole broken off from a children’s high chair and being burned with an iron.

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC told the court: ‘The violence used was not just excessive but was sustained.

‘There was an unimaginable level of pain, suffering and anxiety caused to Sara for a long period prior to her death.’

He told the Old Bailey that Sara was hooded and tied up with ropes before being left in a soiled nappy.

The prosecutor said: ‘This is case involving a gross breach of trust because she was the defendant’s child, she suffered this violence in her own home where she was entitled to feel safe and loved and cared for.

‘There were other children in the house and it can only be sensibly assumed that some of those assaults happened in front of other children.

‘The assault with a cricket bat had been carried out in front of her brother. The younger children cannot sensibly have been shielded from the violence that Sara suffered.’

He went on: ‘Throughout that period there had been extensive steps taken to cover up the violence.’

‘Sara Sharif’s death is a case that ‘bristles with aggravating features’, he continued.

The 10-year-old suffered an ‘unimaginable level of pain’ over a ‘long period’ before her death and that the violence had included a ‘use of weapons’.

‘This is a case involving a gross breach of trust because the deceased was the defendant’s own little child.

‘In their care, she suffered this violence in her own home where she ought to have been entitled to feel safe and loved and cared for,’ he added.

Mr Jones suggested that Sara’s uncle Malik should face a determinate term for causing or allowing the death of a child as he knew what was going on.

Sharif’s lawyer Naeem Mian KC said the case had evoked ‘disgust’ but he said a determinate sentence was appropriate.

‘Nothing I say is intended to diminish the horror that this child was put through,’ he said.

‘There was no intention to kill that is the primary mitigating feature we can rely on.’

He said of his client: ‘He accepts responsibility for that which he did.’

But Mr Mian said Batool was equally culpable.

‘We share the view expressed by the crown they are equally as culpable therefore your lordship ought not to draw any distinction between them, no explanation has been advanced on behalf of the second defendant [Batool] for multiple bite marks, no explanation has been advanced for the horrific burn on Sara.’

Mr Mian said of Sharif: ‘He accepts at last that for which he is responsible for. There is precious little else one can advance [on his behalf].’

Caroline Carberry KC, defending Batool, said her client had ‘lesser culpability’ than her husband.

She said Sharif was the ‘instigator of violence towards Sara and the long-term inflictor of violence on her.’

Ms Carberry said Sharif was ‘threatening and menacing’ towards Batool and the ‘balance of power certainly did not lie with her.’

The defendants stared at the floor throughout the sentencing.

Sara had never worn a hijab but in the last eight months of her life Urfan and Batool began making her wear one to hide the bruises they were causing.

In April 2023 her injuries forced them to take her out of school entirely and she was not monitored at all the final desperate months of her life.

At home she was treated as a ‘skivvy’ and made do all the family’s laundry and take out the rubbish in between beatings and abuse.

Sir Keir Starmer described the case as ‘awful’ and stressed the importance of safeguards for children being home-schooled.

Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said the case highlighted ‘profound weaknesses in our child protection system’.

Maria Neophytou, acting chief executive of the NSPCC, said it was an ‘absolutely shocking case’ raising ‘crucial questions’ about child protection.

Rachael Wardell, from Surrey County Council, said that until an independent safeguarding review has concluded, a ‘complete picture cannot be understood or commented upon’.

Sara’s mother, Olga, said in a statement: ‘My dear Sara, I ask God to please take care of my little girl, she was taken too soon.

‘She will always be in our hearts, her laughter will bring warmth to our lives. We miss Sara very much. Love you Princess.’

Sara’s siblings and half-siblings who were taken to Pakistan following her murder remain in the city of Jhelum, with their paternal grandfather. Efforts to return them to the UK are still ongoing.