Cultural issues within Fire and Emergency NZ have been addressed and the Government has announced its plan for replacement ferries to begin service in 2029. Video / NZ Herald
Sharif, described as a “serial abuser”, used a sham marriage to stay in the UK.
Sara was discovered with over 70 injuries, including 25 fractures, at her home.
Warning: Distressing content
The father of Sara Sharif, who has been found guilty of the 10-year-old’s murder, exploited EU rules to stay in the UK, The Daily Telegraph has reported.
Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, were convicted of killing the schoolgirl after an eight-week trial at the Old Bailey in London.
Sara Sharif was discovered with over 70 injuries, including 25 fractures, at her home. Photo /Surrey Police
During the trial, it was revealed that Sharif, a “serial abuser of vulnerable women”, arranged a “sham marriage” to a Polish woman to remain in Britain.
The 42-year-old’s history of violence against vulnerable women and children was also laid bare. It emerged that at least three separate women had accused him of assault.
He was also accused of being a gambling addict with a taste for whisky.
Jurors took just nine hours to unanimously find the pair guilty of the murder of 10-year-old Sara who was discovered with over 70 injuries, including 25 fractures, at her home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10 last year.
Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik, 29, was found guilty of causing or allowing her death. He was found not guilty of her murder.
Justice Cavanagh adjourned sentencing until next week, telling jurors the case had been “extremely stressful and traumatic”.
Batool, wearing a black blazer, cried as the verdicts were read out. Malik, in a grey prison-issue sweatshirt, put his head in his hands.
Sara began wearing a hijab to cover up the bruises at school. Teachers noticed marks on her face and referred her to social services. Photo / Surrey Police
Sharif, wearing a white zip-up cardigan, did not react as the verdict was read out, but was seen holding his head in his hands as he left the courtroom.
Sharif moved to the UK in 2003 from Jhelum in Pakistan on a student visa to study business management in London.
By November 2009, Sharif was working part-time as a taxi driver and that same month he married Olga Domin, then 23, at a registry office in Surrey.
During his trial, Caroline Carberry KC, representing Batool accused Sharif of pursuing Polish women because the country was a member of the EU.
She accused him of entering into a sham marriage with Domin, which he denied.
By marrying her, he would be allowed to stay in the UK when his student visa expired as a result of conditions in the Free Movement Directive, introduced in 2004.
Sharif claimed in court he was later given indefinite leave to remain in the UK. The Home Office said it did not comment on individual cases.
A pattern of behaviour
A year after getting married, Sharif was arrested after Domin’s mother contacted police from Poland because she was concerned for her daughter’s safety.
Domin told police that her husband had been violent in the home on more than one occasion.
Sharif claimed she had attacked him during an argument. He was later bailed and Domin withdrew the allegation.
A month later, Sharif was convicted of stealing £1700 (NZ$3750) from McDonald’s where he had been working as a manager.
He was arrested in December 2007 for false imprisonment, theft and criminal damage. His accuser was an 18-year-old Polish girl whom he had allegedly been going out with since 2004, when she would have been around 15.
She alleged he locked her in the house against her will, took her passport and smashed her phone.
He then allegedly threatened her with a knife and told her he would kill her. Sharif denied the claims and suggested it was she who had in fact assaulted him.
Two years later, in March 2009, Anna, another Polish woman, then 31, emailed Surrey Police after she “escaped” Sharif’s home and fled back to her country.
Again he was interviewed but no further action was taken.
Sharif and Batool fled to Pakistan after Sara died at the family home in Woking, Surrey, on August 8, 2023.
He called police when he arrived in Islamabad and confessed he had beaten her up “too much”.
Officers went to his former home and found Sara’s body in a bunk bed, with a confession note from Sharif on the pillow.
She had 10 spinal 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.
There was evidence she had been restrained with packing tape and beaten, while a “homemade hood” made of plastic bags was discovered in a bin outside the house.
Jurors were brought to tears on several occasions as they heard details of Sara’s suffering. Sharif’s own barrister told the court his client was a “scumbag” who “would be in the circles of hell for eternity”.
Sharif admitted responsibility for his daughter’s death after he beat her with a cricket bat and metal pole on August 6, two days before she died.
Batool had told her sisters that Sharif would regularly “beat the crap” out of Sara over the course of more than two years, but failed to report what was going on.
By January 2023, Sara began wearing a hijab to cover up the bruises at school. Teachers noticed marks on her face and referred her to social services in March of that year, but the case was dropped within days.
Sara was born in January 2013 and because allegations of violence had been made by other children in Domin and Sharif’s care, she was immediately placed on a child protection plan.
Sharif had allegedly slapped the children and one had been seen with a burn mark on their leg and forehead.
Friends said that while Sharif professed to be a devout Muslim, he was known to drink heavily at night and had developed a gambling addiction and mounting debts.
One former neighbour said that he had a run-in with Sharif while he was having renovations done. “He became quite aggressive,” he said.
Imam Hafiz Hashmi, the leader of the local Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking, said he knew of the Sharif family but they had not regularly attended prayers.
He said: “It is unacceptable and horrific and awful what has happened. I simply cannot imagine what went on in that house.”
From 2014 to 2017, after he split up with Domin, Sharif was only allowed supervised contact with Sara.
In January 2015, one social worker who observed visits between Sharif and Sara at a Sure Start centre in Woking said that he was told Sharif had been waving a knife around at home.
The social worker “also noted during that meeting he appeared to be easily irritated when Sara played. When he went over to Sara, she would shout at him to go away”.
Despite these concerns, Sharif was awarded custody of Sara in 2019 by Guildford Family Court after he filmed Sara making allegations of domestic abuse against her mother.
Domin was said to have learning difficulties and was deemed to be “vulnerable”.
Paying tribute to her daughter, Domin, said: “My dear Sara, I ask God to please take care of my little girl, she was taken too soon.
“Sara had beautiful brown eyes and an angelic voice. Sara’s smile could brighten up the darkest room.
“Everyone who knew Sara will know her unique character, her beautiful smile and loud laugh.
“She will always be in our hearts, her laughter will bring warmth to our lives. We miss Sara very much. Love you Princess.”
Detective Superintendent Mark Chapman, the lead investigator, said before the jury reached its verdict, that it would be “inappropriate” to comment on the actions of other safeguarding agencies.
He added: “That scrutiny will come as we go into the safeguarding review and inquest.
“At that point, it will be for safeguarding partners, whether they’re within the council, social services, education, to answer as to the role of their employees in the safeguarding care that was provided to Sara in the months leading up to her death.”
Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner, said: “Sara’s death must also bring about an immediate shift in how we protect children like her.
“Schools, so often the place where vulnerable children are identified and protected, must be made the fourth statutory safeguarding partners with the police, social care and health services.
“We need proper oversight of children being educated at home, through the long-promised register of children not in school and by requiring councils to sign off on home educating requests for some of the most vulnerable children.
“This must go hand in hand with better data sharing by services and the introduction of a unique ID for every child.”
Surrey Police has been contacted for comment regarding the three instances of domestic abuse.
Maria Neophytou, the acting chief executive of the NSPCC said: “This terrible case has also highlighted the ambiguity of the current legal position in England around the physical punishment of children. It is disturbing that Urfan Sharif believed – and told police – that he ‘did legally punish’ Sara for being naughty.
“Politicians at Westminster must move swiftly to abolish the defence of ‘reasonable chastisement’ and give children the same protection from assault as adults.”
