Sara Sharif’s father confesses to killing her and even punched her as she lay dying

Sara Sharif’s father has admitted killing the 10-year-old, but insists he did not intend to “harm” her, even when he hit her with a metal pole as she lay dying.

Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, had tried to blame Sara’s stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, for a string of injuries, claiming he was at work when his daughter was abused.

On the seventh day of his testimony at the Old Bailey, he told jurors he took “full responsibility” for what had happened but had no intention of hurting his daughter.

He further admitted to hitting Sara with a cricket bat while she was tied up with packing tape.

He repeatedly strangled her with his bare hands, broke the hyoid bone in her neck, and hit her in the head with a cell phone, he said.

He denied burning her buttocks with an iron, biting her arm or putting a belt around her neck, the Old Bailey heard.

But even as Sara collapsed and dying in Batool’s lap on August 8, he continued the years-long campaign of abuse, jurors were told.

That day, Sharif admitted to arming himself with a pole after being called home by Batool.

Lawyer Caroline Carberry KC said on behalf of Batool: “When you entered the room it was clear that Sara needed medical attention.

“You told Beinash that Sara was just pretending to be just behaving.

“And you took the metal pole you had brought upstairs and gave her a few whacks on the stomach while she lay there very sick.”

Sharif agreed and cried on the witness stand.

Ms Carberry said he had rejected Batool’s request to call an ambulance, adding: “It was very clear that Sara was feeling really, really unwell and, as we now know, dying.”

Sharif said: “I remember crying because my daughter woke up. I couldn’t believe she died.”

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

Sharif had called police upon arriving in Islamabad and admitted to hitting Sara “too much” after leaving a written confession on a pillow next to her body.

Post-mortem examinations revealed she had suffered dozens of injuries, including at least 25 broken bones, human bite marks and burns to her buttocks and feet.

The defendants were arrested on a plane at Gatwick Airport on September 13 as they returned to Britain.

Earlier on Wednesday, Batool had sobbed uncontrollably in the dock as Sharif told jurors he took “full responsibility” for Sara’s death.

Ms Carberry had asked Sharif about the note he left next to his daughter’s body before leaving for Pakistan.

In it, he wrote “love you Sara” on the first page, followed by the words: “Whoever sees this note, it is me, Urfan Sharif, who killed my daughter by beating.”

Ms Carberry asked if he had in fact killed his daughter by beating and Sharif replied: “Yes, she died because of me.”

The lawyer said: “In the weeks before her death she suffered multiple fractures to her body, didn’t she, and you were the one who inflicted these injuries?”

The suspect replied: “Yes.”

When asked if he broke Sara’s hyoid bone, Sharif said: “I can take full responsibility. I accept everything.”

Mrs. Carberry continued, “I submit that you beat Sara badly on the night of August 6.”

Speaking barely above a whisper on the witness stand, Sharif replied: “I accept everything.”

Ms Carberry continued: “Do you accept the post-mortem evidence that these fractures, at least 25 in number, were caused by you during assaults with a weapon?”

She asked what Sara had done in his eyes to deserve such treatment, and said, “Were you angry with her because she started soiling herself in the summer of last year?” And she had started vomiting, right?

‘And when you hit her repeatedly and severely with the cricket bat, you intended to hurt her, didn’t you? And you knew that if you hit her the way you did, you wouldn’t just cause a small bruise on her body. You hit her with the intention of causing her very serious harm.”

The defendant agreed.

Sharif asked for the murder charge to be resubmitted to him, but after a lunch break he appeared to change his mind and insisted he was not guilty.

He told jurors: “I didn’t want to hurt her.

“I didn’t want to hurt her.”

Mrs. Carberry replied, “But you did harm her. What was your intention when you brought a cricket bat to a ten-year-old girl?

The suspect said: “I did wrong. I didn’t think anything.”

Mrs Carberry asked: “Do you accept that you killed her?”

Sharif said: “She died because of me. I didn’t want to kill her.”

Concluding her cross-examination, Ms Carberry asked Sharif whether he had told the truth when he admitted to killing Sara in his phone call to police and in the note left on her pillow.

“When you told police during that phone call that you ‘beat her up too much,’ you were telling the truth.”

Sharif replied: “Yes.”

Sharif, Batool and Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, Surrey, deny murder and causing or permitting Sara’s death and the trial continues.