Sara Sharif ‘had a plastic ‘home-made hood taped over her head’ and was ‘beaten with a cricket bat’: Neighbours ‘heard ‘gut-wrenching’ screams before 10-year-old was found dead’

Sara Sharif was forced to wear a hijab to ‘conceal’ her injuries from the outside world before she was beaten to death by her father, a court heard today.

Urfan Sharif is accused of battering his 10-year-old daughter Sara to death before fleeing to Pakistan last August after subjecting the schoolgirl to weeks of brutal abuse.

Months before the murder, neighbours noted that Sara had started to wear a hijab in January 2023, which Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones, KC, said was a bid to conceal the appalling injuries she was receiving at home.

Around the same time neighbours reported hearing sounds of screaming and crying coming from Sara’s home, jurors were told.

Primary school staff noticed bruising under Sara’s eyes and on her chin in March 2023, but the victim gave ‘multiple conflicting stories as to how she got the bruises’ and teachers observed that she would often pull her hijab to hide her face, it was said.

Around the same time neighbours reported hearing sounds of screaming and crying coming from Sara’s home, jurors heard 

Urfan Sharif is accused of battering his 10-year-old daughter Sara to death before fleeing to Pakistan last August 

Sharif later removed his daughter from the school register in April 2023, saying she would be home schooled, which meant she was ‘not seen by anyone in the outside world’ prior to the murder, the prosecutor said.

The Old Bailey heard that neighbours of the family’s cramped home in Surrey often heard screaming and the sound of a child crying accompanied by ‘banging and rattling’ as if someone was trying to alert someone that they were trapped behind a door.

Neighbour Rebecca Spencer said she would often hear screams, crying and then ‘deathly quiet’ when a distraught child fell silent.

Mr Emlyn Jones said: ‘On other occasions Ms Spencer would hear other bangs from the flat and which sounded like someone had been hit or smacked….Ms Spencer did consider reporting what she heard to social services but ultimately decided against it.’

A new tenant Chloe Redwin similarly described hearing a child screaming followed by their stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, shouting, ‘shut the f*** up’ and ‘go to your room you f****** b******’, it was said.

Ms Redwin would also frequently hear the mother refer to children as ‘c****’, jurors were told.

The prosecutor said: ‘On occasions Ms Redwin would hear sounds of smacking; they were shockingly loud and would be followed by gut-wrenching screams of a young female child.

‘Over the screaming she would hear the mother shout, ‘shut up’ and sometimes the sounds of further smacking would be heard followed by shouting.’

None of the neighbours alerted the authorities as Sara seemed ‘smartly dressed’ and there were no obvious signs of injury, it was said.

Sara was allegedly subjected to months of abuse, the trial has heard  

The court heard that Sharif was ‘conscious’ of what was going on, because he would apologise for the noise.

Local residents observed that Sara appeared to have a number of responsibilities within the household, including taking the bins out each week and hanging up washing.

The family removed their Ring doorbell camera before they fled to Pakistan on August 9, the day after the murder, it was said.

The prosecutor said: ‘You might want to ask yourselves why that would have been done; and what its removal might tell you about the presence of mind of whoever removed it, as the family fled to Pakistan, leaving behind them Sara’s dead body and an otherwise empty house which would inevitably be treated as a crime scene.’

Sara died on August 8 last year after suffering an appalling catalogue of injuries following a ‘brutal’ campaign of violence lasting weeks, jurors have heard.

Her whole body was covered in bruises, bite marks, puncture wounds and abrasions from ‘significant and repetitive blunt force trauma’, it was said.

She had been tied up, possibly to a hot pipe, scalded with hot water, and had burn marks on her buttock from an iron.

A post-mortem examination revealed she had been ‘beaten’ with objects, strangled, and was ‘left severely unwell, close to death’ from a series of head injuries.

Police later charged Sharif, his wife Beinash Batool, 30, (left) and his younger brother Faisal Malik, 29, (right) who were all living in the house at the time of the murder

In addition, Sara had 11 spinal fractures and suffered broken ribs, collar bone, shoulder blades, both of her arms, her hands and some of her fingers were fractured.

Following her death on August 8 last year, Sharif and his family spent £5,180 on flights to Pakistan leaving the next day, the court heard.

Sharif then rung 999 an hour after they landed in Pakistan on August 10, allegedly telling police: ‘I killed my daughter.’

After a month on the run the family flew back to Gatwick where police arrested Sharif, his wife and his younger brother Faisal Malik, 29, who were all living in the house at the time of the murder.

Mr Emlyn Jones said all three defendants had played a part in Sara’s murder.

Sharif, Batool and Malik all deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.

The trial continues.