Sara Sharif’s father admits beating his daughter and tells court he takes ‘full responsibility’ for schoolgirl’s death

Sara Sharif’s father has told jurors he “takes full responsibility” for the death of his 10-year-old daughter.

Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, made the confession under cross-examination as his wife Beinash Batool, 30, cried in the dock at the Old Bailey on Wednesday.

He admitted hitting the 10-year-old schoolgirl with a cricket bat and a metal pole.

He also accepted that he had beaten her in the days before her death, causing fractures all over her body.

Earlier, Sharif had tried to blame Batool for his daughter’s murder, but in a dramatic confession he told jurors: “I accept everything.”

Sara Sharif was found dead at her family home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10

Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial for the murder of his 10-year-old daughter Sara

Sara was found dead at the family home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10 after the defendants fled to Pakistan.

The 10-year-old suffered dozens of injuries, including human bite wounds and iron burns, jurors heard.

Caroline Carberry, KC, defended his wife Beinash Batool, 30, asking: ‘Did you hit her? Did you injure her?

Speaking softly into the dock, he nodded and said, “Yes.” He added: ‘I take full responsibility.’

He denied biting or burning his daughter when asked to look at a folder detailing injuries on her body. ‘I can’t do that. I can’t watch it. “I take full responsibility,” he said.

Sara Sharif had at least 71 external injuries to her body when she was found dead, a court previously heard

Beinash Batool (left) and Faisal Malik deny murder and causing or permitting the death of a child

Mrs Carberry said: ‘Did you use the cricket bat to inflict these injuries?’

He said, ‘Yes ma’am.’

She continued, “Did you use a white metal pole to cause these marks?”

He replied: ‘Yes ma’am.’

He said he took “full responsibility” for breaking the bones in her neck, but he did not know whether he used a belt to cause the injury.

Batool fled the dock in tears as he confessed, while members of the jury wept as they left the court.

The Old Bailey trial was adjourned this morning after the dramatic admissions.

The schoolgirl was found dead in her bunk bed at home in Woking, Surrey after Sharif and Batool fled to Pakistan, where he called 999 on August 10 last year and confessed: ‘I killed my daughter’.

She had suffered at least 71 external injuries, including dozens of broken bones.

Police released this photo of Sara Sherif last September

A post-mortem examination revealed ten vertebral fractures and further fractures to her right collarbone, both shoulder blades, both arms, both hands, three separate fingers, bones near the wrist in each hand, two ribs and her hyoid bone in the neck.

Sharif had denied causing the injuries during his trial, but on his seventh day on the witness stand he asked if he could say something to the jurors.

He told them, ‘I did what I did. I want to admit it: it’s all my fault.

‘That I admit what I said in my (999) telephone call and my written note.’

He asked to sit down and cried when Mrs. Carberry asked, “She died because you hit her.” So that’s true?’

He said, ‘Yes ma’am. I take full responsibility.

But he shook his head when asked if he intended to seriously harm her or kill her.

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

The process continues.