Judge in Sara Sharif case warns of ‘dangers’ of automatic right to home school children
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Judge says killers home schooled Sara as a ‘ruse’ to hide evidence of 10-year-old’s repeated beatings. A senior judge who jailed the killers of Sara Sharif has said the 10-year-old’s murder “starkly illustrates the dangers” of parents automatically being able to home school their children.
Sara had twice been pulled out of school by her father, Urfan Sharif, and stepmother, Beinash Batool, as a “ruse adopted for wholly selfish purposes” to cover up evidence of her repeated beatings. The judge, Mr Justice Cavanagh, said home schooling had allowed the couple to continue abusing Sara “beyond the gaze of the authorities”.
The eight-week trial heard that Batool would put makeup on Sara’s bruises to conceal them from her teachers and that the schoolgirl was eventually dressed in a hijab. Sara’s teachers did notice bruises on her face and referred her to social services just months before she was killed. In April 2023, a month after social services closed the case, Sharif informed Sara’s headteacher for the second time that he would be home schooling his daughter with immediate effect.
She was found dead in a bunk bed at the family home in Surrey on 10 August 2023. Sharif, 43, and Batool, 30, were jailed for life for her murder on Tuesday as ministers introduced a new bill to tighten up home schooling in England. The children’s wellbeing and schools bill will enable the government to introduce registers to identify and keep track of children not in school, while parents seeking to educate their child at home will face greater scrutiny.
