Sara Sharif’s neighbour never saw the 10-year-old smile and girl’s stepmother said she was being homeschooled after being bullied over her hijab, murder trial hears
Schoolgirl Sara Sharif’s neighbor never saw the 10-year-old smile, who today heads a murder case.
Sara suffered at least 71 external injuries and was tortured in the days before she died, the Old Bailey has previously heard.
Her father, taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, his wife Beinash Batool, 30, and brother, McDonald’s worker Faisal Malik, 29, all deny murder and causing or permitting the death of a child.
Their neighbor Judith Lozeron told the court she didn’t see Sara much but thought she was being homeschooled because she was being bullied.
But she said, “She never smiled when I saw her, not once.”
Ten-year-old Sara Sharif (pictured) was strangled until a bone in her neck broke in the weeks before her murder, the Old Bailey has heard.
Sara’s father Urfan Sharif (pictured), 42, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of murdering his daughter, along with Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle Faisal Malik, 29
Police later charged Sharif, his wife Beinash Batool, 30, (left) and his younger brother Faisal Malik, 29, (right), all of whom lived in the house at the time of the murder.
An autopsy revealed that Sara had suffered ‘multiple and extensive injuries’ over a ‘sustained and prolonged’ period.
Sara was found dead in her semi-detached home in Woking on August 10, 2023.
Ms Lozeron lived in the adjacent property and shared a wall with the Sharifs after they moved there in early 2023.
She said she and her husband introduced themselves to the family when they moved in and that the family was “always nicely dressed, always nice and clean and quite smart.”
She said she didn’t see Sara that often and she didn’t play in the yard much.
She said she asked Sara’s stepmother Batool how she managed to homeschool her, and Batool said it was “not difficult” because she had BBC Bitesize programmes.
‘I was told that she had been bullied at her last school for wearing a hijab, so they decided to keep her at home and therefore homeschool her.
“I said I thought she should have children her own age and Beinash replied that she started making friends at the mosque and at the pool, and that was the end of the conversation.”
She said Sara would wear a hijab every time she saw her, but she didn’t see anyone else in the family wearing a head covering.
Prosecutor Ben Lloyd asked the witness: “How many times have you seen Sara?”
Police released this photo of Sara Sherif last September while searching for information
This Old Bailey court artist’s drawing by Elizabeth Cook shows Sarah Sharif’s father Urfan Sharif (right) and her uncle Faisal Malik (left), as well as stepmother Beinash Batool (center)
Sara Sharif was tied up with a plastic bag taped to her head in a ‘homemade hood’ and ‘beaten with a cricket bat’, jurors were told.
Footage shows police storming Sara Sharif’s house
Urfan Sharif is said to have left disturbing handwritten notes showing that he confessed to the murder before fleeing Britain.
“I swear to God I did not mean to kill her,” reads the note allegedly written by Urfan Sharif and later recovered by police.
Mrs. Lozeron replied, “Not that often. Sometimes she picked up the laundry from the backyard.
“I saw her in the car a few times when they all went out, but very little really.”
Mr. Lloyd asked, “Do you remember ever seeing her smile?”
Mrs. Lozeron replied, “Never did she smile when I saw her, not once.”
She said Urfan told her that Malik did not live in the house, but she thought he did as she saw him often.
Mrs Lozeron said she went out of her way to welcome the family and that they in turn were friendly and helpful, and that she never heard any particularly loud noises from the house.
But Ms Lozeron said she would sometimes hear Urfan talking very loudly to Batool in the backyard and the conversations would become “heated.”
She said she sometimes didn’t like how he spoke about his wife and felt he spoke of her “disparagingly.”
The neighbor agreed when asked if Urfan presented himself as a “good, hard-working father” and that he could be “quite charming.”
But once she saw Urfan belittling Batool and said, “I was shocked to see the resignation or expressionlessness on her face.
‘I looked at her when he was ringing the bell and I was shocked by that expression on her face, which was expressionless, but to me almost frightening.
‘And then I wondered: does he often do that indoors? Is that something she’s used to?’
A court artist’s sketch by Elizabeth Cook shows Sara Sharif’s father Urfan Sharif (right) and her uncle Faisal Malik appearing via video link from Belmarsh prison last December
Court artist’s sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Sara Sharif’s stepmother Beinash Batool, seen via video link, from Bronzefield women’s prison in Surrey, at the Old Bailey in September last year
These images show police storming into Sara Sharif’s house
She said that on one occasion her husband Brenin told Urfan not to talk about his wife that way, and that Urfan never did so again.
Ms Lozeron said the last time she saw Sara was at a family gathering of the Sharif’s in their garden on July 23, 2023.
Sara was found to have ten vertebral fractures and further fractures to her right collarbone, 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.
After the murder, Sharif fled to Pakistan with Batool and Malik, leaving Sara’s body in the three-bedroom house in Woking.
They were arrested at Gatwick Airport just over a month later on September 13 last year after flying back from Dubai.
Sara had probably died on August 8, two days before Urfan called the police.
Sharif, Batool and Malik all deny murder and causing or permitting the death of a child.
The process continues.