Sara Sharif’s father ‘threatened to kill ex-partners’, court hears

The father of 10-year-old Sara Sharif, who is accused of her murder, was previously arrested for domestic violence and threats to kill former partners, a court has heard.

Sara was found dead, with dozens of injuries to her body, at her family home in Woking, Surrey, on 10 August last year

The girl’s father, Urfan Sharif, 42, stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, have denied murder.

A jury at the Old Bailey heard on Monday that Mr Sharif had previously been arrested in connection with allegations made by three separate women since 2004.

Mr Sharif told the jury he was in a relationship with a Polish woman from 2004 until 2007 or 2008.

Cross-examining Mr Sharif, Ms Batool’s defence barrister Caroline Carberry KC told the court that according to her records, in 2007, the woman was aged 18.

“[The woman] told police that you had held her in a bedroom against her will, that you locked the door using her key, that you shouted at her ‘don’t go to your friends and I want to see you always at home’, and when you were doing that you were squeezing her face,” Ms Carberry told Mr Sharif.

The court then heard how the woman alleged Mr Sharif pointed a knife at her, took her passport, stamped on her phone and told her: “Shut your mouth or I’ll kill you.”

Mr Sharif denied the allegations.

In March 2009, Mr Sharif went to Poland. He met another woman, whom he had been speaking with online for the previous eight months.

The pair returned to the UK, but the woman fled the country after two weeks, claiming she was falsely imprisoned by him for five days.

Mr Sharif denied this and also rejected claims by Ms Carberry that he sent threatening emails to the woman, stopped her from seeing her friends and withheld her passport.

The jury was told how five months after the woman returned to Poland, Mr Sharif met a third woman from Poland, Olga, who would become Sara’s mother.

Olga moved to the UK and married Mr Sharif. The court heard how one year into the marriage, Mr Sharif was arrested for assaulting Olga and another child, which he dismissed as “false allegations”.

Mr Sharif also denied locking Olga in a room and taking her phone, but said keeping hold of her bank cards was “normal husband and wife behaviour”.

Ms Carberry said: “The fact is at that time you were a gambler, weren’t you? You owed over £17,000 to creditors at that time.

“You used to have a problem with alcohol. You drank to excess at home, didn’t you? Whiskey was your favourite. Did you become angry in drink?”

“Never,” replied Mr Sharif, who rejected the accusation he had an alcohol problem.

In 2011, while still married to Olga, Mr Sharif accepted that he became engaged in an Islamic ceremony to his cousin in Pakistan.

The following May, Olga became pregnant with Sara. The jury heard that as soon as Sara was born she was made subject of a child protection plan.

On 17 May 2013, a social worker visited the home.

“At that time, [there was] an agreement in place that you, the parents, would alert social services to any marks that you saw on the children,” Ms Carberry told Mr Sharif.

“You told the social worker that [a child] had been accidentally burnt by a BBQ tong when playing football. Why you didn’t report a burn mark to the leg?”

Mr Sharif replied: “We should have told it.”

During a meeting between Mr Sharif and Sara, while Sara was living with a foster carer, a social worker claimed that the girl flinched when being told off by Mr Sharif and appeared surprised when he picked her up and cuddled her.

Mr Sharif agreed with this observation and said it was because Sara was still living with her foster carer.

Jurors were told that by 2014, Olga was no longer living with Mr Sharif, Sara had moved back in with her father and Ms Batool was “helping out”.

The court heard that Olga is alleged to have told social services that Mr Sharif tightened a belt around her neck.

“A belt is something you would go on to punish Sara with, too,” said Ms Carberry.

Mr Sharif replied: “No ma’am.”

The court was also shown a video of Sara a week before she died with what Ms Batool’s barrister described as a “very nasty black eye”.

Asked why he had not noticed such an obvious injury, Mr Sharif replied he did not remember it.

Mr Sharif was never charged in relation to the allegations made against him by the three women.

The three defendants, who all lived with Sara in Woking before her death, are also charged with causing or allowing the death of a child, which they deny.

The trial at the Old Bailey continues.