Sara Sharif's stepmother 'told sister girl was beaten black' years before 'murder'

Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of his daughter’s murder alongside her stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 29

The stepmother of a young girl who was found dead inside her home allegedly sent WhatsApp messages detailing how the 10-year-old was "literally beaten black." Beinash Batool, 30, sent the messages in 2019, the Old Bailey heard.

Sara's father Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial accused of her murder alongside Batool and Faisal Malik, 29. The prosecution alleges all three played a part in Sara's death after being hooded, restrained, burned, bitten and hit with a belt buckle and pole.

Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones said: "As a minimum, it shows Sara was being hurt and injured as long ago as spring of 2021 - so that is more than two years before her death - and Beinash Batool was aware and even on her version of events, she didn't stop it."

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In February 2022, the court heard she told another sister Sharif was "beating Sara up ... 'cos she's being naughty". She added: "Urfan's behaviour makes her do it more." Then told her sister: "Something happens to Sara I will not be able to forgive myself."

In May 2021, she messaged her sister: "Urfan beat the cr*p out of Sara. She's covered in bruises, literally beaten black. I feel really sorry for Sara, poor girl can't walk. I really want to report him."

Sara was taken out of school in April 2023 and died four months later on August 8 2023, The Mirror reports. "These messages are only one small part of the overall picture," Mr Emlyn Jones told jurors.

He continued: "It is the prosecution's case Sara's death was caused by the combined actions of all three adults in the house; for the systematic, if not daily then certainly frequent assault and abuse of that little girl could not have been done without the participation, assistance and encouragement of them all.

"Keeping it from the outside world is just one small aspect of that. It would be no surprise, the prosecution suggests, if Beinash Batool presented only a partial picture of the truth to members of her own family."

A former neighbour of Sara told the court that she would hear a child screaming followed by “deathly quiet". Rebecca Spencer heard the noises “from the moment” the Sharif family moved into a flat in around 2018 to 2019, the court was told.

He said Ms Spencer thought the “banging and rattling” sounded like “someone was banging on and pushing at a door” as if trying to open it. In a statement read by Mr Emlyn Jones, Ms Spencer 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."

The defendants have all denied Sara's murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16 2022 and August 9 2023.

The trial continues.

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