The father of Sara Sharif, a 10-year-old girl who was found dead in her home in Britain, denied responsibility for his daughter’s death as he gave evidence at his murder trial on Tuesday.
Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking, a town southwest of London, after what prosecutors say was a campaign of “serious and repeated violence”.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones told jurors at the start of the trial that Sara had suffered a litany of injuries, including burns and bite marks.
Her father Urfan Sharif, 42, his wife and Sara Sharif’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and the girl’s uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are on trial at London’s Old Bailey court charged with her murder.
The trio are charged with causing or allowing the death of a child. All three deny the charges against them and blame each other for her death, prosecutors have said.
Emlyn Jones told jurors earlier this month that Urfan Sharif said to police: “It wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.”
Sharif entered the witness box on Tuesday and was asked by his lawyer Naeem Mian whether he was responsible for Sara’s death. He replied: “No.”
He became emotional as he was asked by Mian to describe what Sara was like, saying she was “beautiful, an angel” and that her favourite colour was pink.
Sharif accepted slapping Sara on “a few occasions” to discipline her but denied beating her in a regular or sustained way.
Mian had said to the jury that Sharif had wrongly been painted as a “villain”, rather than Batool, for slapping Sara.
Batool’s case, prosecutors have previously said, is that Urfan Sharif was a “violent disciplinarian” and that she was scared of him.
F1 Drivers’ Championship leader Max Verstappen won a chaotic, rain-lashed Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday, roaring back from 17th on the grid to reignite his push for a fourth successive world title.
The Red Bull driver came home ahead of Alpine duo Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, who benefitted when the race was earlier red-flagged, with title rival and pole-sitter Lando Norris only managing a sixth-place finish in his McLaren.
The victory was Verstappen’s first in a grand prix since Spain in June and he now boasts a 62-point lead in the championship with three races left in the season. “You know what that is? Simply lovely,” said Verstappen on the team radio as he crossed the finish line.
George Russell was fourth in a Mercedes with Charles Leclerc fifth in a Ferrari while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was seventh. Yuki Tsunoda of RB Racing was eighth with teammate Liam Lawson in ninth and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton filling out the top 10.
The race was suspended on lap 32 after a huge crash involving Williams driver Franco Colapinto. The Argentine lost control on the treacherous surface, smashing into a wall and tearing off the left side of his car.
Colapinto appeared unhurt but had to retire from the race. The race was red-flagged while debris was cleared.
At the time of the suspension, Ocon was leading ahead of the championship leader after the early pace-setters, including Norris, had pitted. After the delay, the race resumed under a rolling start.
