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Sara Sharif shouted at dad to go away, court hears

Surrey Police Sara Sharif smiling towards the camera. She has long, dark hair and is wearing long earrings and a green shirt.Surrey Police

Sara Sharif shouted at her father to “go away” during supervised contact when she was a toddler, a court has heard.

Sara was found dead with dozens of injuries at her family home in Woking, Surrey, on 10 August last year, when she was 10 years old.

She shouted at her father Urfan Sharif in 2015 when she was not living with him, according to notes from a social worker who observed the contact, the Old Bailey heard.

Mr Sharif, 42, along with Sara’s stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, have denied both murder and causing or allowing her death.

Mr Sharif told Ms Batool’s barrister, Caroline Carberry KC, that the social worker’s notes were not true.

“She was not even talking at that time,” he said.

“She started talking at the age of three.”

Surrey Police Three photos side-by-side. A man with a beard, a woman with long brown hair and a green shirt, and a man with stubble and a red shirt.Surrey Police

Urfan Sharif, Beinash Batool and Faisal Malik are each facing two charges relating to the death of Sara Sharif

Ms Carberry KC also went through a list of allegations made against Mr Sharif – that he falsely imprisoned an 18-year-old woman, that he hit his first wife in the mouth and made it bleed, that he kicked her and threatened to kill her and swore all the time.

He denied all the allegations, saying the social worker records were false.

Ms Carberry KC said he also only attended four out of 10 sessions of a “parenting puzzle” course.

Mr Sharif agreed that when he met Ms Batool he was 32 or 33 and she was 20, and that it was a casual relationship at first.

Surrey Police Police footage of Urfan Sharif in a white polo on a plane.Surrey Police

Urfan Sharif, seen here when he was arrested at Gatwick Airport, said claims he threatened to kill former partners were “false allegations”

Ms Carberry KC said Ms Batool was a “vulnerable young woman”, isolated from her family and struggling.

Mr Sharif said: “She is anything but vulnerable. If she can steal jewellery from her friend she is not vulnerable.”

Ms Carberry KC asked him: “Do you remember cutting her clothes with scissors?”

“No ma’am,” Mr Sharif said. “She’s a psycho. That is her thing.”

“She’s a psycho and is obsessed with cutting clothes.”

The court heard that he had told social services that they were “a perfect couple”.

Guildford Family Court later ordered Mr Sharif to attend a Domestic Violence Perpetrator Programme.

He attended 10 out of the 16 sessions, the court heard.

‘As her own’

The jury heard that in 2019 Sara was living with her mother Olga Sharif, but then made allegations of neglect and violence against her.

She said her mother was smoking cannabis, not feeding her, leaving her alone with another child and burning her with a lighter.

Mr Sharif recorded the allegations in a video.

This led to a court order that Sara should live with her father and his new wife, Ms Batool.

Caroline Carberry KC said: “She treated [her] as her own.”

“That’s what I thought,” Mr Sharif replied.

“[She] seemed to love Beinash more than [she] loved you?” he was asked.

“That’s right ma’am,” he said.

The trial continues.

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