Sara Sharif's dad 'controlling narrative', jury told

Sara Sharif's body was found at her home in Woking on 10 August last year

The father of 10-year-old Sara Sharif is “controlling the narrative even now”, a jury at the Old Bailey has heard.

Under cross-examination, Urfan Sharif previously accepted “full responsibility” for Sara's death in Woking, but denied intending to kill her.

Mr Sharif, 43, Sara's stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and her uncle Faisal Malik, 29, all deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.

In his closing speech to the jury on Tuesday, Michael Ivers KC, for Mr Malik, said his client was "not responsible for the sins of his brother".

Mr Ivers KC added: "He [Mr Malik] gave his teeth marks because he'd never bitten, he’d never burnt, he’d never hit, he’d never done anything.

"The reason there isn’t a single piece of evidence that he did is that he simply didn’t."

'Laughably wrong'

He said the evidence against his client was "entirely circumstantial".

Mr Ivers KC added that it was “bluntly laughable” to say that the evidence against Sara’s uncle was the same as the other defendants.

He later said: “There just isn’t any evidence. There isn’t even a strong circumstantial case, it’s entirely lacking, it’s all based on must-haves.

“The idea that we started this trial with the position that my client was always at home…has been shown to be laughably wrong.”

The court previously heard that Sara had been hooded, burned and beaten during more than two years of abuse before her body was found with dozens of injuries at the family’s home in Surrey last year.

Urfan Sharif, Beinash Batool and Faisal Malik are each facing two charges relating to the death of Sara Sharif

Mr Ivers KC told jurors: “You don’t have to be Mystic Meg in this case to realise that there’s an issue in and around causation."

He said: “In a nutshell, he [Mr Sharif] accepted a beating that he had delivered on the 6th and there was then some breaks ….in the end we got to a position where the indictment wasn’t put again.

“What if it was, what if he had pleaded guilty….and the Crown were asking questions based upon what had happened on the 6th?

“If he’d said yes, if he’d said guilty, do you think anybody would be scratching around trying to add a bruise to a bite etc…etc…some cumulative effect when the answer is staring at you in the face about what caused her death.

“Urfan Sharif is controlling the narrative even now."

During his evidence, Mr Sharif went on to deny that he beat Sara on 6 August 2023, two days before she died.

Mr Ivers KC said: “The reason it’s now denied is that it’s simply put in all likelihood… that it’s the beating that in the end led to her death."

Closing speeches have now finished and the judge has started summing up the case to the jury.