Police have released footage of the moment three family members of schoolgirl Sara Sharif were arrested aboard a plane on suspicion of murder.
Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of his daughter’s murder, alongside Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 29.
The videos show the trio being arrested on suspicion of the 10-year-old’s murder after they flew back to the UK from Pakistan.
Police discovered the child’s body in a bunk bed at their her home in Woking, Surrey, after her dad “confessed” to killing her in a 999 phonecall.
Sara suffered over 70 injuries including “probable human bites” on her left arm and leg in the lead-up to her death.
The three deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
Sara Sharif relatives arrested on plane at Gatwick Airport
In the footage, as they are approached by officers on, stepmum Beinash Batool can be heard saying: “I think you’re looking for us.”
The murder-accused trio flew back to the UK on a flight from Dubai to Gatwick Airport on 13 September.
Police also released CCTV images of the family at Heathrow Airport the day before her body was found alongside Sara’s five other siblings.
Ring doorbell footage captured the family leaving their Hammond Road address – where Sara’s body was later found – in a BMW X5 at 9.16am.
They then drove to Heathrow Airport, on the outskirts of London.
The car is seen arriving the short stay car park with Urfan in the driver’s seat.
At the trial at the Old Bailey, jurors were told Sharif had a bone in her neck broken, showed signs of starvation and had been forced to wear a makeshift hood in the weeks before her death.
Paediatric radiologist Prof Owen Arthurs told jurors that the spinal fractures suffered by the 10-year-old were “very rare” and usually reflective of high-impact trauma like car crashes.
“The most likely cause is manual strangulation with a degree of force, which we would mostly recognise in hanging,” he told the court.
The court was also shown X-rays of some of her injuries, including fractures in the fingers of her left hand and one in the u-shaped hyoid bone in her neck.
Bone specialist Professor Anthony Freemont told the court he found a break in her neck had been caused “within the setting of neck compression” of which “the most common cause of these types of fractures is manual strangulation”.
He said that, according to his analysis, this injury was between six to 12 weeks old at the time of Sara’s death.
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said Sara’s father told a 999 operator he had “killed” his daughter after claiming he “legally punished her”.
He said: “At 2.47am here in the UK a call was made to Surrey Police and the call was the first defendant Urfan Sharif.
“The call to the police lasted eight and a half minutes. In the call Urfan Sharif began by asking the operator to take down his address.
“It’s difficult to make out what he’s saying because it sounds like he’s crying.”
The operator interrupted him and said ‘take a deep breath’ and tell me what’s happened.
“999 operators as I’m sure you can imagine are used to hearing all kinds of dreadful things in 999 calls. But this operator can’t have expected the answer he got to his question ‘tell me what happened’.”
“Urfan Sharif answer was to say ‘I have killed my daughter’.
“He used what you may think is an odd expression.
“He said ‘I legally punished her and she died’.”
“Jones continued: “A little later in the call when asked for more detail, he added ‘she was naughty and then I beat her up.“It was not my intention to kill her but I beat her up too much’.”
‘I lost it’
A note left by Sara’s bed, ostensibly from Sharif, claims he killed her.
Jurors at the trial were shown the note found next to Sara’s body at the family home in Woking last year.
The note read: “It’s me, Urfan Sharif who killed my daughter by beating.
“I swear to God it was not my intention to kill her but I lost it.”
It added: “I’m running away because I’m scared.”The note also said: “My daughter is Muslim. Can you bury her like Muslim may be. I will be back before you finish the post mortem.”
The trial continues.
On Thursday, jurors were presented with WhatsApp messages, sent between 2020 and 2023, in which Batool told her sister of the beatings Sara suffered.
They were accompanied by pictures of a grim-faced and bruised Sara, with the message: “Look what he’s doing. Delete the pictures.”
During the time period, Batool often told her sister that Sharif hit Sara for her “naughty, rude and rebellious” actions, such as hiding keys and tearing up documents.
As early as February 2020, Batool described Sharif as going on a “rampage” after spilling hot tea, saying he was “possessed”.
She described an “anger attack” after a visit to a play centre and incidents in which Sharif broke photo frames and curtains.
Commenting on 10 photographs of Sara, she wrote: “This is how bad he is beating her … I feel really sorry for her. He beat the crap out of her.”
At one point, Batool even claimed Sara had a “jinn” inside her, suggesting she was possessed in some way.
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.
In the summer of 2021, Batool texted her sister telling her she wanted to report her husband after he left Sara “covered in bruises, literally beaten black.”
The trial continues.
By Flaminia Luck
