Sara Sharif’s Dad attracted to Wife due to ‘Honour-based Abuse’

The Old Bailey heard that the father of murdered Sara Sharif was attracted to her stepmother because she was a vulnerable young victim of “honour-based abuse”.

Urfan Sharif is on trial for his 10-year-old daughter’s murder along with his wife Beinash Batool and brother Faisal Malik.

Batool’s lawyer rejected Sharif’s claim that she was violent towards Sara, saying he was the one who was controlling, abusive and manipulative.

According to Caroline Carberry KC, Sharif first met Batool when she was 20 and “vulnerable”.

Sharif, who is 12 years older than his wife, denied getting hold of her phone number from a shopkeeper at Woking station, insisting they met in his taxi.

He knew Batool had been a “victim of honour-based” abuse and had been placed in a refuge when she was a teenager.

Ms Carberry asked Sharif: “You knew the older people in her family thought she had shamed them by running away from home.

“Do you agree she was an isolated and lonely young woman?

“When you met her it was very obvious this was a young woman who was isolated from her family and struggling at that time in the world, a vulnerable young woman.

“A vulnerable young woman, just the way you like your partners to be.”

Sharif replied: “No, she is anything but vulnerable.”

Jurors were shown a mobile phone video which Sharif had previously claimed was evidence of Batool stopping him from leaving their home.

Ms Carberry told Sharif he “twisted” the event to make it appear like an abusive incident but the filming of it demonstrated “how controlling you were”.

But Sharif insisted: “That’s not right, she locked me in again and again and again.”

Ms Carberry highlighted a message from Batool to her sister about Sharif ripping up family photographs.

Batool told her: “I’m so dumb. I don’t want to live in an abusive relationship … seriously I’m so done with this.”

Ms Carberry said the messages showed Sharif was “a little unhinged” and “paranoid” and Batool’s “assessment she was in an abusive relationship with you is true”.

Sharif replied: “That’s not right.”

Sharif had successfully fought for custody of Sara in 2019, in large part because of Batool and in spite of social services’ earlier concerns about the risk he posed.

Ms Carberry pointed out that in June 2016, Sharif was ordered by a judge at Guildford Family Court to undertake a domestic violence perpetrator programme.

Sharif said it was suggested he do the course if he wanted contact with his family.

Before gaining custody, Sara had supervised visits with Sara at a centre in Woking.

Sharif deflected allegations he waved a knife at his ex-wife Olga by making it sound like a children’s “zombie game”.

He denied Sara would shout at him to “go away” during the visits, saying she was not even speaking at the time.

Sharif also rejected allegations that he swore and hit Sara’s mother in the mouth, saying he had never been charged with an offence.

Sara Sharif was found dead at the family home in Woking on August 10, 2023, after the defendants fled to Pakistan.

Jurors have heard that Sara suffered dozens of injuries, including iron burns.

The defendants deny Sara’s murder and causing or allowing her death.

The trial continues.