Sara Sharif’s father told jurors he “takes full responsibility” for the 10-year-old’s murder After brutally beating him while he was on trial for murder.

With a dramatic confession Old Bailey “I admit everything,” 42-year-old Urfan Sharif told jurors on Wednesday, while his wife and co-defendant Beinash Batool wept in the dock.

The taxi driver admitted hitting the schoolgirl with a cricket bat while she was bound with packing tape, repeatedly strangling her with his bare hand and hitting her with a metal pole as she lay dying.

Despite this, he continues to deny the murder, telling the court: “He died because of me. I didn’t want to kill him.”

In the early hours of August 10 last year, the Sheriff called Surrey Police. After fleeing to Pakistan to say that he beat his daughter “too hard” for being “naughty” and she died.

Previously, the Sheriff had tried to frame Batool for Sara’s murder.He was found dead in a bunk bed in his family’s home waking upThe court heard a catalog of serious injuries in Surrey, including human bite marks and iron burns.

Sharif, Batool and Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik, 29, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, Surrey, deny the murder and causing or permitting the 10-year-old’s death and the case continues.

Highlights

Summary: What happened to Sara Sharif?

08:51 , Holly Evans

Sara was found dead in a bunk bed at the family home in Woking, Surrey, last August 10, a day after her father, stepmother and uncle fled to Pakistan.

When Urfan Sharif arrived in Islamabad, he called the police and confessed that he beat Sara “too much” and left a written confession on the pillow next to her body.

An autopsy revealed he suffered dozens of injuries, including at least 25 broken bones, human bite marks and burns to his hips and feet.

The defendants were arrested on a plane at Gatwick Airport on their return to the UK on 13 September.

Watch: Video shows the moment Sara Sharif’s family was detained by police on the plane

08:33 , Holly Evans

Urfan Şerif admitted that he brutally beat his daughter and even hit her with a metal pole when she was about to die.

08:00 , Tara Cobham

Sara Sharif’s father admitted to brutally beating the 10-year-old, even hitting her with a metal pole as she lay dying.

Jurors were told that Urfan Sharif continued his years-long harassment campaign as the schoolgirl collapsed and died in the arms of her stepmother Beinash Batool on August 8 last.

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

Defense barrister Caroline Carberry KC, for Batool, said: “When you entered the room it was clear that Sara needed medical attention.

“You told Beinash that Sara was just pretending. “So you took the metal pole that you took upstairs and hit him in the stomach a few times while he was lying there very badly.”

The sheriff agreed and wept on the witness stand.

Sheriff admits to tying his daughter with tape before beating her

07:46 , Holly Evans

The Old Bailey heard that Urfan Sharif occasionally bound his daughter with tape in the weeks leading up to her death in August 2023 and then beat her with a stick or cricket bat.

He was told that he had tied Sara up with tape and she replied “yes ma’am”.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said in July when asked if he used the brown packing tape ordered from the family’s Amazon account.

Caroline Carberry KC, for Beinash Batool, asked Sharif if he forced Sara to do squats while her ankles and wrists were tied with tape, to which Sharif replied “no ma’am. “No ma’am, that’s not true.”

The sheriff later added: “I beat him with a stick, but I didn’t do sit-ups or squats.”

He refused to tie Sara up to prevent her from escaping or defending herself.

Sara Sharif’s father admits to killing schoolgirl but continues to deny murder

07:00 , Tara Cobham

Sara Sharif’s father has admitted killing the 10-year-old but insisted he did not want to “hurt” her while continuing to deny murder.

42-year-old taxi driver Urfan Sharif tried to blame Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool (30) and claimed that he was at work when his daughter was being harassed.

On the seventh day of his testimony at the Old Bailey, he told jurors he took “full responsibility” for what happened but did not intend to harm his daughter.

He admitted to hitting Sara with a cricket bat because she was tied up with duct tape.

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

Allegations that he burned the man’s buttocks with an iron, bit his arm or put a belt around his neck were denied, the Elder Bailey heard.