A Beautiful Life Cut Short by Abuse
Ten-year-old Sara Sharif was described as a beautiful little girl with a lovely smile and a loud laugh, but she never stood a chance against the people who should have protected her. Her father, Urfan Sharif, 43, and stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, beat her to death while authorities repeatedly failed to intervene, a damning review has concluded.
A Perpetrator Hiding in Plain Sight
Urfan Sharif was a known domestic abuse perpetrator long before Sara was born. After arriving in the UK on a student visa, the Pakistani taxi driver was reported to police and social services for attacking three women and two children, including a one-month-old baby. His violent history included holding one woman at knifepoint, choking another with a belt, and imprisoning a girlfriend for five days while he sent her passport off for a marriage application to secure UK residency.
Despite this catalogue of violence, he was never charged with any offence, successfully shifting blame onto his victims each time. Social services were repeatedly alerted after Sharif was accused of biting, hitting, burning, pinching and slapping children, but no further action was taken after he blamed Sara's mother, Olga Domin.
Missed Opportunities and Fatal Errors
Sara was taken into foster care in 2014 at age two, and although the local authority believed she should be adopted, only a 12-month supervision order was implemented without adequate safeguards. Meanwhile, her father continued his pattern of abuse, eventually leaving Ms Domin to travel to Jhelum in Pakistan where he secretly married his cousin before returning to embark on a third marriage with Beinash Batool.
In 2016, Sharif was ordered to attend a domestic violence perpetrator programme after Ms Domin accused him of hitting her and children. He admitted to extensive domestic abuse but attended only eight of 26 sessions. Experts found not enough evidence that he had changed his behaviour, yet the significance of this report became lost within the system when a social worker failed to complete an analysis.
The Pivotal Custody Battle
Despite the overwhelming evidence against Sharif, social workers recommended Sara should move back into her father's supposedly safe and loving home. In October 2019, a judge at Guildford family court ordered that Sara live with Sharif and Batool, persuaded by a flawed report prepared by an inexperienced social worker under pressure to meet deadlines.
Sara's Polish mother was marginalised during proceedings, with no court interpreter to explain what was happening, leaving her voice effectively lost in decisions about her daughter's fate. The safeguarding review described this court decision as pivotal, noting that critical information about the risks Sharif posed was available but opportunities were lost to connect the dots.
Disappearing From View
During COVID-19 lockdowns, Sara effectively disappeared from view as her father and stepmother began administering daily beatings. Though offered a school place, Sharif kept her at home to hide her injuries. When she returned in September 2020, teachers noted that past trauma and a hectic home life was affecting her behaviour.
By 2021, Sara's demeanour had changed dramatically. She began wearing a hijab to hide bruises, which wasn't questioned by social workers even though none of her family members wore one. Teachers accepted her excuses that she wanted to emulate her father's Pakistani heritage, failing to recognise this as a potential red flag for abuse.
The Final Failure
When teachers raised concerns about Sara's bruises in 2022, Sharif quickly announced she would be home-schooled. Her school had no knowledge of Sharif's violent history as it wasn't in their files. Sara briefly returned to school in March 2023 with three facial bruises, including a golf ball-sized injury to her cheek.
The headteacher called social services, but Sharif blamed another child and claimed Sara had injuries from birth. Due to data protection concerns, teachers believed they could get in trouble for sharing information, meaning Sharif's lies went unchallenged. After superficial analysis, the case was closed with no further action just six days later, without any police inquiries.
Sara was withdrawn from class for home-schooling on April 17, 2023, and was never seen alive outside the home again. A home education visit was delayed due to staff sickness and annual leave. When the team finally visited on August 7, they went to the wrong address. Within 24 hours, Sharif had fatally beaten Sara with a pole, causing her death on August 8.
A System That Failed Completely
The safeguarding review concluded that if Sara had been seen, the abuse would likely have come to light. It found numerous instances where the seriousness of her father as a serial perpetrator of domestic abuse was overlooked, not acted upon, and underestimated by almost all professionals involved with Sara and her family.
The report states: There were numerous times before Sara was born and throughout her life that the seriousness and significance of her father as a serial perpetrator of domestic abuse was overlooked, not acted on and underestimated by almost all professionals. It is this accumulation of many decisions and actions over time that contributed to a situation where Sara was not protected from abuse and torture at the hands of her father, stepmother and uncle.
