Father of Sara Sharif, 10, called 999 to confess, court hears

Sara Sharif's father left a chilling note on a pillow next to his 10-year-old daughter's body in which he confessed to killing her 'by beating', a court heard today. 

Urfan Sharif went on the run to Pakistan after battering his daughter Sara to death, prosecutors told jurors at the start of his trial. 

The 42-year-old is said to have told police that 'she was 'naughty', adding: 'I beat her up, it wasn't my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.'

Police raced to the family home in Surrey where they found the schoolgirl dead lying under the covers in her bunk bed.

Beside her battered body was a note allegedly in Sharif's handwriting which read: 'It's me Urfan Sharif who killed my daughter by beating. I swear to God that my intention was not to kill her. But I lost it.' He added: 'I am running away because I am scared.' 

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones, KC, told jurors that Sharif and his family fled on August 9 last year leaving the body of his daughter behind following a 'brutal' campaign of violence lasting weeks.

Two days after the murder, Sharif is said to have dialled 999 at 2.47am on August 10 when he was already 'thousands of miles away' from the scene.

Mr Emlyn Jones said: 'In that call, Urfan Sharif began by asking the operator to take down his address. It sounds like he is crying. The operator interrupted and said ''take a deep breath and tell me what's happened''.

'999 operators are used to hearing all kinds of dreadful things, but this one cannot have expected the answer he got to that question. Urfan Sharif told him ''I've killed my daughter''.

'He used an odd expression: ''I legally punished her, and she died''.

'A little later, when asked for more detail, he added ''she was naughty'', and then ''I beat her up, it wasn't my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much''.'

Describing the appalling scene that police later found, the prosecutor said: 'In an upstairs bedroom, on a bottom bunk bed, the police found the body of a little girl, lying in bed, under the cover, as if asleep. But she was not asleep. She was dead.'

Mr Emlyn Jones went on: 'When Urfan Sharif said, in that call, ''I beat her up'', he came nowhere near to describing the extent of the violence and physical abuse Sara had suffered; not just at the time of her death, but repeatedly, over time; she had been the victim of assault and physical abuse for weeks and weeks, at least. 

'The doctors found dozens of separate injuries, externally and internally, when they examined Sara's body.

'She had suffered extensive bruising; burns; broken bones, old and new.

'So no, Sara had not just been beaten up. Her treatment, certainly in the last few weeks of her life, had been appalling; it had been brutal.'

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

Today the prosecutor told jurors that Sharif now claims that his 'apparent confessions were false' and that he was only saying those things to protect others.

Batool's case is that 'her husband was a violent disciplinarian, who regularly assaulted Sara', but she was scared of her husband, jurors were told.

She wept in the dock today as jurors were played audio of the harrowing 999 call lasting eight-and-a-half minutes.

The stepmother, wearing a tan jacket, bowed her head sobbing as the court heard that Sharif had called 999 just an hour after the family landed in Islamabad on August 10.

In the call, Sharif refused to reveal his location, revealing only that he was driving a relation's car, jurors were told.

He allegedly told police: 'She is only 10 years old, oh my god. I did something and she died.'

When asked about her injuries and whether Sara was still breathing, he is said to have told the 999 operator that she was dead adding: 'I tried to resuscitate.. she is dead I'm telling you.'

He added: 'I'm a cruel father. I'm driving, I'll come back'.

Sharif promised to go to Woking police station repeating: 'I'll come back, I'll face the death sentence.'

As police continued to ask where he was, the phone call abruptly ended.

Mr Emlyn Jones said all three defendants had played a part in a 'campaign of abuse' that led to Sara's death on August 8 last year.

He told jurors: 'Ask yourselves, how could just one person have carried out so much abuse, so many assaults, without the others knowing about it and witnessing it with their own eyes?

'If any one of them was not a part of it, but had seen it, why then was nothing done to stop it, or report it?'

He continued: 'Each of them denies that they were the one responsible for any of that violence and abuse.

'Each of them seeks to deflect the blame onto one or both of the others, to shift responsibility away from themselves, onto someone else.

'In other words, they are pointing the finger at each other.'

Malik claimed that although he was living in the house he was 'entirely unaware of any abuse', the court was told. 

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

All three defendants deny murder.

The trial continues.