The 15 missed opportunities to save Sara Sharif: Social services closed case just months before schoolgirl's murder despite teachers' concerns and father's history of abuse
- WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Sara Sharif's two-year abuse ordeal was missed by social services, despite teachers raising concerns over bruises on the ten-year-old on at least three occasions.
The schoolgirl was subjected to brutal beatings at the hands of her cruel father Urfan Sharif at their £500,000 three-bedroom home in Woking, Surrey.
His wife Beinash Batool, 30, and brother Faisal Malik, 29, were party to the years-long sickening abuse in which Sara was hooded, burned, strangled and tied up.
Neighbours would hear 'gut-wrenching screams' coming from the home which was often followed by a woman shouting: 'Go to your room, you f***ing b*****d.'
Concerned teachers recorded seeing bruises on Sara and made a report to social services.
But astonishingly a decision was made not to look into the family. Months later, Sara was brutally killed.
Today, a jury found Sharif and Batool guilty of her murder, while Malik was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child.
Below, MailOnline runs through the 15 missed opportunities to save her:
Sara Sharif pictured at school before she was murdered by her father and stepmother
The faces of evil: Urfan Sharif, 42, (left) and Beinash Batool (right) were found guilty of murdering Sara
Sara's uncle Faisal Malik, 29, was found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child
1. January 2013
Sara Sharif is made subject to a child protection plan at birth due to her father Urfan Sharif being accused of attacking three women including her mother, as well as hitting and biting two children. But she is allowed to remain with her father.
2. February 22, 2013
A month after Sara is born, social services and police are told that Sharif has slapped a child around the face. No charges are brought.
3. May 7, 2013
A social worker spots a burn mark on a child’s leg. Sharif had failed to report the incident and claimed it was a BBQ accident. Nothing is done.
4. October 7, 2013
A child is seen with a burn mark sustained from a domestic iron. Sharif told social services the child had knocked into the iron. No action is taken.
5. 2013-2014
A child tells a social worker that Sharif smashed up a TV and punched Sara’s mother Olga.
Sara Sharif pictured as a toddler
Urfan Sharif, 42, (pictured) being arrested on a plane at Gatwick airport on September 13
Sara was beaten to death by her abusive father in August last year 9
Sara suffered an unimaginable ordeal at the hands of her father and stepmother
6. November 2014
Sara is taken into foster care after a child tells a social worker about a bite mark. But she later returns to live with her father following a family court hearing in October 2019 where social services recommend she should stay with him because that is her preference.
7. January 2015
Sharif is reported to social services for waving a knife around at home in what he said was a ‘zombie’ game. Social workers note that Sharif hit and kicked Olga at home and the pair threatened to kill each other.
8. February 2015
A child tells their foster carer that Sharif used to hit them on the bottom with a belt. In September the child is heard to say to Sharif, ‘when you’re at home you hit and kick me every day’.
9. 2015
Olga tells social services that Sharif tightened a belt around her neck. Around this time social workers complain Sharif is coercive and derogatory towards them.
Sara Sharif pictured during her reception year at school
Sara's father Sharif (left) and his wife Beinash Batool both stood trial at the Old Bailey accused of murdering the schoolgirl
10. December 2016
A child tells a social worker they don’t like Sharif because he punched them all over their body and gave them lots of bruises. Social workers observe that Sara flinches when Sharif tells her off during supervised contact and she seems surprised when he cuddles her.
11. June 6, 2022
A teacher reports that Sara has a bruise under her eye to the school’s online child protection monitoring system. Sara initially will not say what happened, before claiming another child hit her.
12. March 10, 2023
A teacher saw bruises on her face. Sara said she had fallen on roller skates. When Sara gave a different story to a safeguarding lead, the school made a referral to social services. Six days later social services remove ‘decide to take no further action’ and replace ‘close the case’.
'The headteacher spoke to her and Sara lowered her head and refused to lift her head or show her head,' prosecutor William Emlyn Hughes KC told jurors during the six week murder trial.
'She was reluctant to talk and kept her face lowered and only spoke with her face buried with her arm on the table.'
Sara Sharif's evil father faces life in prison today for the murder of the schoolgirl (pictured)
Sara was found to have ten spinal fractures and further fractures to her right collar bone, both shoulder blades, both arms, both hands, three separate fingers, bones near the wrist in each hand, two ribs and her hyoid bone in the neck
The family house on Hammond Road in Woking, Surrey, where the body of Sara Sharif was found
13. March 20, 2023
A report is logged on the school's internal system after Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool is overheard referring to children as "motherf***er, sister f***er, b**** and whore" in the playground.
14. March 28, 2023
Batool claims to a teacher that a mark on Sara’s face is caused by a pen. The teacher tells the school’s safeguarding lead.
15. April 17, 2023
Sharif decides to home-school Sara. The school rings the council for advice and is told it should make a referral if there are concerns.
It was the third time she had been taken out of school following previous occasions in June 2022 and again after April 2023.
Staff see Sara later that day at school pick-up and she seems fine so they decide against it, even though she had been beaten earlier that day. She is never seen outside the home again.
Beinash Batool speaking alongside Urfan Sharif after they fled to Pakistan to evade justice for the schoolgirl's murder
Little Sara Sharif, 10, was subjected to the most horrific abuse at her family home in Woking, Surrey
The schoolgirl died on August 8, 2023, with her body being found under a blanket in her bunk bed
