Sara Sharif’s father denies responsibility for her death

LONDON: The father of Sara Sharif, accused of murdering a 10-year-old girl on Tuesday, denied responsibility for his daughter’s death during the murder trial.

Sara was found dead at her home in Woking, south-west London, in August last year after what prosecutors said was a campaign of “serious and repeated violence”.

At the beginning of the trial, prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones told jurors that the victim suffered multiple 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 the Old Bailey court in London, accused of murder.

The trio are accused of causing or allowing the death of a child. Prosecutors said all three denied the charges against them and blamed each other for her death.

Emlyn Jones told jurors earlier this month that Urfan Sharif told police: “It wasn’t my intention to kill him, but I beat him up a lot.”

The sheriff took the witness stand Tuesday and his lawyer, Naeem Mian, asked if he was responsible for Sara’s death. He replied: “No.”

He got emotional when Mian asked what Sara was like, saying that she was “beautiful, an angel” and that her favorite color was pink.

The sheriff agreed to spank Sara “a few times” to discipline her, but denied beating her on a regular or sustained basis.

Mian had told the jury that Sharif was wrongly portrayed as the “bad guy” rather than Batool for slapping Sara.

Prosecutors had previously stated that Batool’s case was that Urfan Sharif was a “violent disciplinarian” and that he was afraid of him.

The trial is expected to last until December.