00:00Police!
00:04In August 2023, police raided this home in Woking, Surrey, and found what they feared
00:10they might – the body of a 10-year-old girl, Sara Sharif.
00:18The raid followed this distressing emergency call from her father, Irfan Sharif.
00:23I killed my daughter. I killed my daughter. I was panicking and I laughed her out.
00:29Who's killed your daughter?
00:31It's me.
00:32OK.
00:33Sara.
00:34How?
00:35I beat her up. It wasn't my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.
00:43Sharif had made that call from Pakistan, where he'd fled the day after Sara's death, along
00:48with his partner, Benash Batool, and Sara's uncle, Faisal Malik.
00:54They are seen here, at Heathrow Airport, boarding the flight to Islamabad.
00:59Meanwhile, Sara's lifeless body lay on a bunk bed in Hammond Road, covered in injuries,
01:05including multiple broken bones, burns and human bite marks.
01:11At the family home, police found this note, claiming to be from Irfan Sharif.
01:16It says that he has killed his daughter, and that he is running away because he is scared.
01:23Whilst in Pakistan, Sharif and Batool delivered this video message in early September, complaining
01:31that their family was being harassed.
01:33The next week, Sharif, Batool and Malik returned to the UK, and were arrested on arrival at
01:40Gatwick Airport.
01:42I think you're looking for us, Batool tells officers.
01:58The trio were accused of carrying out a campaign of abuse against Sara over a period of nine
02:04months, culminating in her death.
02:07In nearly 30 years in policing, I've not come across a case such as this, where the
02:12level of injury that has been caused to a child is, as was inflicted on Sara, the level
02:20of injury, the level of neglect to her.
02:23Policing deals with these cases very, very rarely, and thankfully so.
02:28But when it does happen, it's a real motivating factor to us all, to ensure that we do our
02:34absolute best.
02:36Giving evidence at the trial at London's Old Bailey, Irfan Sharif blamed his wife,
02:41Benash Batool, for his daughter's death, before taking full responsibility for it on
02:45the seventh day.
02:47Both Batool and Faisal Malik declined to give evidence.
02:51Today, jurors found Sharif and Batool guilty of Sara's murder.
02:56Malik was found guilty of causing or allowing the ten-year-old's death.
03:01The court had heard that Sara was the only member of her family to wear a hijab, used
03:06to hide her injuries during this campaign of abuse.
03:10I've seen a lot of child abuse cases.
03:13These must be the worst injuries that I have come across.
03:21The number of them, the nature of them, and the suffering that Sara would have had as
03:32a result of this catalogue of serious injuries is like nothing I've seen before.
03:42Sentencing of the three defendants will take place on Tuesday next week.
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