The girl’s stepmother was ‘possessed’, the court said

A stepmother accused of murdering 10-year-old Sara Sharif was “possessed” as if “someone performed black magic on her”, a court has been told.

Sara’s body was found with dozens injured last year at the family’s home in Woking, Surrey, the Old Bailey was told.

Her father Urfan Sharif, 42, stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, have denied murder.

In evidence, Mr Sharif told jurors that Ms Batool abused him and that her family told him she had a “problem”.

“She’s very, very crazy when she gets into that mentality. She doesn’t stop,” he told the court.

“Her family came and said, ‘Don’t leave her.’ Her family said: “She is possessed (as if) someone has done black magic on her,” he told jurors.

He also denied ever hitting Sara, adding that no incident had occurred with him and the children while he was at home.

“Everything happened at home while I was at work,” he told the court.

Jurors were told that Mr Sharif was in the case that Ms Batool was responsible for Sara’s death. He made a false confession during the phone call and also in a note to protect his wife.

Warning: This article contains disturbing details

Two videos that Mr Sharif filmed on his mobile phone were played for jurors on Wednesday.

Mr Sharif said Ms Batool had accused him of flirting with a hospital nurse before “abusing” him at their home in February 2016 and “not letting me leave the house”.

‘She twisted my hands. She kicked me for that,” he told the court.

In the video played for jurors, Mr Sharif is heard telling his wife: “You are pressuring me” and that he was going to use the recording as “evidence against her”.

In the second recording, filmed in June 2019, Mr Sharif can be heard repeatedly telling Ms Batool to “let me go” and “leave me alone”.

Mr Sharif is then seen climbing out of the kitchen window.

He told the court that Mrs Batool had ‘hit’ him, adding that ‘she locked the front door’ and ‘she got very angry’.

Naeem Mian KC, for Mr Sharif, earlier told the court that Ms Batool was “the real bad guy”.

He told jurors that Mr Sharif arrived home on August 8, 2023 and found Sara “limp”, before attempting CPR and pleading for an ambulance.

“He was told in Urdu or Punjabi: ‘Leave it alone, she is dead,’” Ms Batool, Mr Mian KC added.

The court previously heard that Sara was hooded, burned and beaten for more than two years of abuse.

A post-mortem examination revealed that Sara suffered dozens of injuries, including “probable human bite wounds”, an iron burn and hot water burns before she died on August 8, 2023.

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC previously said a blood-stained cricket bat, a rolling pin with Sara’s DNA on it, a metal pole, a belt and a rope were found near the family’s outbuilding.

The court also previously heard that Mr Sharif, Ms Batool and Mr Malik traveled with other family members to Islamabad, Pakistan on August 9, 2023, the day before Sara’s body was found.

Prosecutors say Sharif called police from Pakistan and admitted to killing Sara about an hour after his family’s flight landed in Islamabad.

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