Jury in Sara Sharif murder trial retires to deliberate verdicts

WorldPolitics
3 Dec 2024 • 9:46 PM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

The world’s most free-thinking newspaper

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The jury in the trial of Sara Sharif’s father, stepmother, and uncle have begun deliberating whether the trio are guilty of murder.

Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, his wife Beinash Batool, 30, and brother Faisal Malik, 29, are all accused of Sara’s murder last August, following years of alleged abuse against the 10-year old from Surrey.

Sara was found dead in the Woking family home on August 10 after Sharif phoned the police from Pakistan and revealed he had beaten her up “too much”.

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During the trial, Sharif confessed to hitting Sara with a metal pole, cricket bat and mobile phone. He denied putting a hood over her head, burning her with a hot iron and boiling water, and biting her.

Batool and Malik denied involvement in the abuse and declined to give evidence in the trial.

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All three defendants have denied murder, causing or allowing the death of a child and the alternative offence of manslaughter.

Mr Justice Cavanagh sent the jury out to start deliberations on the verdict shortly before 1pm on Thursday.

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