Their gruesome abuse laid bare, Sara Sharif’s father and stepmother start life sentences to cries of ‘evil’
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The pair were described as ‘executioners’ by Sara’s mother, who watched on as the defendants stared down while their sentences were delivered during an emotionally-charged hearing at The Old Bailey. Sara Sharif’s father and stepmother have been jailed for life for repeatedly inflicting pain and trauma during a “campaign of abuse” which resulted in the 10-year-old’s death.
![[Sara was ‘tortured’ by her family members and suffered more than 70 recent injuries (Surrey Police/PA)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/17/11/c9fd9bc4088b4acf46307d3a75f0ea50Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM0NTIxMDY0-2.78456474.jpg)
With his voice shaking, the judge described her treatment as “nothing short of gruesome” as he outlined the horrifiying injuries she endured while she was tortured by her family members. The pair learned their fate after Sara’s mother, Olga Domin, who lives in Poland, called them “sadists” and “executioners”.
![[Sara had remained ‘cheerful’ and smiling despite her terrible circumstances . (Surrey Police/PA)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/17/02/6577e8349498f1d76d148ac1c8501646Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM0NDQ4ODU1-2.78456484.jpg)
Surrey Police found Sara dead in a bunkbed at her home in Woking, Surrey, on 10 August last year, after her father Urfan Sharif rang police from Pakistan to confess he had beaten her “too much” for being “naughty”. Appearing on Tuesday at the Old Bailey, taxi driver Sharif, 42, was jailed for a minimum of 40 years while Beinash Batool, 30, was handed a minimum 33-year sentence after they were both convicted last week.
![[Beinash Batool has been jailed for a minimum of 33 years]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/17/08/96714d5e-ac27-410d-9852-c4ecda8347af.jpg)
There were cheers and applause from the public gallery as the sentences were delivered, with one person heard to say “evil”. Facing the bowed down defendants, Mr Justice Cavanagh said: “Sara’s death was the culmination of years of neglect, frequent assaults, and what can only be described as the torture of this small child, mainly, but not entirely, at the hands of you, her father, Urfan Sharif.”.
![[The cricket bat used to abuse Sara at the family home in Woking]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/17/13/SEI232830531.jpg)
