Father, stepmother of 10-year-old girl found dead in UK are convicted of her murder

LONDON -- The father and stepmother of a 10-year-old girl found dead in her home in England were found guilty Wednesday of her murder after what prosecutors called a “campaign of abuse.”

Urfan Sharif, 42, and his 30-year-old partner Beinash Batool will be sentenced Tuesday in the killing last year of Sara Sharif, as will Urfan Sharif's brother, 29-year-old Faisal Malik, who was found guilty of causing or allowing the girl's death.

Police found Sara’s body under a blanket in a bunk bed at her home in Woking, southwest of London, on Aug. 10, 2023, with dozens of injuries including extensive bruising, burns and fractures. An examination concluded she died of unnatural causes.

The three adults fled to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, on Aug. 9, the day after Sara was believed to have died.

Her body was discovered after Urfan Sharif called U.K. police from Pakistan to say he had “legally punished her, and she died,” prosecutors said. He told the phone operator it wasn’t his intention to kill her but he had “beat her up too much,” they said.

Police in Pakistan found the three suspects after an extensive search and put them on a flight to the U.K, where they were arrested upon arrival in London.

Batool and Malik denied involvement in the abuse. Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones has said all three defendants lived in the same house as Sara and it was “inconceivable” that just one had acted alone.

During the trial, Sharif initially blamed Batool for Sara’s death but later told jurors he took “full responsibility." He admitted throttling her with his hands and battering her with a cricket bat and other objects.

The prosecution said the violence became so normalized that no one reacted when she appeared with bruises at a family barbecue.

Sara was feisty and dreamed of being a fairy tale princess. Her spirit came across in a video taken two days before her death showing her dancing at home, despite multiple broken bones and iron burns on her bottom.

“Seeing the footage of Sara laughing and joking even when she had signs of injuries to her body and knowing what a happy child she was at school — she loved singing and dancing — and knowing what happened to her, those are the most affecting parts of the case,” said Libby Clark, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service.

Justice John Cavanagh adjourned sentencing until Tuesday, telling jurors the case had been “extremely stressful and traumatic."