The father and stepmother of a severely abused 10-year-old girl found dead in her home in England were sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for murder. <\/p>\n
Urfan Sharif, 42, and Beinash Batool, 30, were convicted of the murder of Sara Sharif last week in what prosecutors called a \u201ccampaign of abuse.\u201d <\/p>\n
The girl\u2019s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, was found guilty of causing or allowing the girl\u2019s death. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. <\/p>\n
After the girl died, the three fled to Pakistan, where Urfan Sharif phoned UK police to say he \u201clegally punished her, and she died,\u201d prosecutors said. He said he \u201cbeat her up too much,\u201d but didn\u2019t intend to kill her. <\/p>\n
Police in London then went to the family\u2019s home and discovered Sara\u2019s body under a blanket in a bunk bed on Aug. 10, 2023. <\/p>\n
The three returned to Britain more than a month after they fled and were arrested on suspicion of murder. <\/p>\n
The trial in the Central Criminal Court exposed horrific details of abuse that included more than 70 fresh injuries and many older ones, including bruising, burns, fractures and bite marks and raised questions about failures by social services and authorities to intervene and protect her. <\/p>\n
\u201cSara\u2019s death was the culmination of years of neglect, frequent assaults and what can only be described as the torture of this small child,\u201d Justice John Cavanagh said. \u201cThe degree of cruelty is almost inconceivable \u2026 None of you have shown a shred of true remorse.\u201d <\/p>\n
Politicians and other officials have called for a review of what went wrong and urged reforms to prevent a repeat of such cases. <\/p>\n
\u201cHer death is a heartbreaking reminder of the profound weaknesses in our child protection system that, as a country, we have failed time and time again to correct,\u201d Rachel de Souza, children\u2019s commissioner for England, said in a statement after the trial. \u201cWe have been here before \u2013 and each time we have said \u2018never again.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
Following the trial, family court records were released showing that Urfan Sharif and his former wife, Olga Sharif, had been on the social services\u2019 radar three years before Sara Sharif was born. <\/p>\n
The father and stepmother got custody of Sara and her older brother after reports that their mother abused them. <\/p>\n
Despite accusations that Urfan Sharif was physically abusing his children, the accusations were never tested in court. <\/p>\n
Surrey County Council, which raised repeated concerns that Sara was likely to be physically and emotionally abused by her parents, plans to review the circumstances of her death. Child services had investigated after her school reported Sara was bruised but the agency took no further action. <\/p>\n
Her father later took her out of school to prevent authorities from discovering the abuse, the judge said. She was not schooled at home. <\/p>\n
Olga Sharif called her daughter\u2019s killers cowards, sadists and executioners, in a statement read by a prosecutor. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t understand how someone can be such a sadist to a child,\u201d she said. \u201cShe is now an angel who looks down on us from heaven, she is no longer experiencing violence.\u201d <\/p>\n
During the trial, Sharif initially blamed Batool for Sara\u2019s death but later told jurors he took \u201cfull responsibility.\u201d He admitted throttling her with his hands and battering her with a cricket bat and other objects. <\/p>\n
The prosecution said the violence became so normalized that no one reacted when she appeared with bruises at a family barbecue. <\/p>\n
Her parents made her wear a hijab \u2013 not for religious reasons but to \u201ccover up the bruises that were all over Sara\u2019s body,\u201d Cavanagh said. <\/p>\n
Sara was described as feisty and dreamed of being a fairytale 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. <\/p>\n
\u201cDespite everything, she smiled at the camera,\u201d the judge noted. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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