Sara Sharif was forced to wear a hijab to “hide” her injuries from the outside world before her father beat her to death, a court heard today.
Urfan Sharif is accused of beating 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, neighbors noticed that Sara had begun wearing a hijab in January 2023, which prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones, KC, said was an attempt to hide the horrific injuries she was receiving at home.
Around the same time, neighbors reported hearing screams and cries coming from Sara’s home, jurors were told.
Elementary school staff noticed bruises under Sara’s eyes and on her chin in March 2023, but the victim told “multiple conflicting stories about how the bruises got” and teachers noted that she often took off her hijab. to hide his face, he told himself. .
Sara Sharif began wearing a hijab at school to “hide the horrific injuries she was receiving at home”, jurors were told.
Around the same time that neighbors reported hearing screams and cries coming from Sara’s house, jurors heard
Urfan Sharif is accused of beating his 10-year-old daughter Sara to death before fleeing to Pakistan last August.
Sharif subsequently removed his daughter from the school register in April 2023, saying she would be home-schooled, which meant “no one in the outside world had seen her” before the murder, the prosecutor said.
The Old Bailey heard that neighbors at the family’s narrow Surrey home often heard screams and the sound of a child crying accompanied by “bangs and rattles”, as if someone was trying to alert someone that they were trapped behind a door
Neighbor Rebecca Spencer said she often heard screaming, crying and then a “dead silence” as a distraught child fell silent.
Emlyn Jones said: “On other occasions, Ms. Spencer would hear other bangs in the apartment that sounded like someone had been punched or slapped… Ms. Spencer considered 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 her stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, shouting to “shut the f*** up” and “go to your room, you f***ing bitch”. **’, he said to himself.
Redwin also frequently heard the mother refer to the children as ‘c****’, jurors were told.
The prosecutor said: ‘At times Mrs Redwin heard slapping sounds; They were surprisingly loud and were followed by the piercing screams of a little girl.
“In the midst of the screams, I would hear the mother yell ‘shut up’ and sometimes there would be more banging followed by screams.”
None of the neighbors alerted authorities as Sara appeared “well dressed” and there were no obvious signs of injuries, it was said.
Sara was allegedly subjected to months of abuse, trial heard
The court heard Sharif was “aware” of what was happening because he would apologize for the noise.
Local residents noted that Sara appeared to have a number of responsibilities within the home, including taking out the trash each week and hanging up the laundry.
The family was said to have removed the Ring doorbell camera before fleeing to Pakistan on August 9, the day after the murder.
The prosecutor said: ‘You may want to ask why that would have been done; and what its removal might tell you about the presence of mind of whoever removed it, when the family fled to Pakistan, leaving behind Sara’s body and an empty house that would inevitably be treated as a crime scene.
Sara died on August 8 last year after suffering a horrific catalog of injuries following a campaign of “brutal” violence that lasted weeks, jurors have heard.
His entire 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, possibly to a hot pipe, scalded with hot water and had burn marks on her butt caused by an iron.
A post-mortem examination revealed that she had been “beaten” with objects, strangled and “left seriously ill, on the verge of death” due to a series of head injuries.
Police later charged Sharif, his wife Beinash Batool, 30 (left) and his younger brother Faisal Malik, 29 (right), who lived in the house at the time of the murder.
In addition, Sara had 11 spinal fractures and suffered broken ribs, clavicle, shoulder blades, both arms, her hands and some fingers were broken.
Following his death on August 8 last year, Sharif and his family spent £5,180 on flights to Pakistan which left the next day, the court heard.
Sharif then called 999 an hour after landing in Pakistan on August 10 and allegedly told 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 living in the house at the time of the murder.
Emlyn Jones said that all three defendants had participated in Sara’s murder.
Sharif, Batool and Malik deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.