One of Sara Sharif’s alleged killers told officers “I think you’re looking for us” as they were arrested.
Stepmother Beinash Batool, 30; Sara’s father, Urfan Sharif, 42; and her uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, had fled to Pakistan the day after Sara died at the family home in Woking, Surrey, on August 8 last year.
Jurors have viewed CCTV footage of the family as they prepared to board a flight from Heathrow Airport.
Surrey Police had found Sara’s body in a bunkbed after Sharif called from Pakistan to say that he had beaten her “too much” for being “naughty.”
Screen grab from body cam footage of the arrest of Sara Sharif’s stepmother, Beinash Batool and Sara Sharif’s uncle Faisal Malik
Surrey Police/PA
The little girl had suffered dozens of injuries, including burns and human bite marks, in what the prosecution alleges was a campaign of abuse culminating in her death.
On September 6, 2023, a press conference in Pakistan was broadcast featuring Sharif and Batool, who complained that the family were being harassed. On September 13 last year, police received information that the three defendants would be arriving at Gatwick airport on a flight from Dubai that evening.
On Friday, jurors were shown clips from officers’ body-worn video capturing the moment police boarded the plane and detained the defendants at 7.42pm, seven minutes after touchdown.
As officers approached, Batool raised her hand and said: “I think you’re looking for us.”
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The arrest of Sara Sharif’s father Urfan Sharif, 42, at Gatwick Airport in London
PA
Sharif, who had been sitting next to her, was asked if he had any items or bags on the flight and replied that he did not. After being taken off the plane, the defendants were arrested and put into police vans.
The following day, each defendant was interviewed by police but chose to make no comment. All three defendants, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, have denied murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16, 2022 and August 9, 2023.
On Thursday, jurors heard a series of WhatsApp messages between 2020 and 2023 in which Batool relayed to her sister Qandeela Saboohi beatings Sharif had allegedly carried out on Sara. They were accompanied by pictures of a grim-faced and bruised Sara, with the message: “Look what he’s doing. Delete the pictures.”
Batool repeatedly complained to her sister that Sharif was hitting Sara for being “naughty”, “rude and rebellious” and because she had cut up his clothes, hidden keys and torn up documents. Saboohi advised her to listen to the Koran, and when Batool talked about going to the police, told her to calm down.
Batool said that Sara had cut her father’s clothes for being mean and Sharif was “punishing her” by making her stay up all night doing “sit-ups.”
She told her sister: “She’s got a jinn in her. She reminds me of me when I was young.”
On another occasion, Batool said Sharif “went ballistic” and “beat Sara up like crazy” expressing fears that he would break her arm or leg. After Batool had gone to bed, she said Sharif was in the other room making Sara “put her hands up”.
The trial continues.
