A damning independent report into the failings by the various authorities who came into contact with Sara Sharif has said the 10-year-old should never have been placed in the care of her father and stepmother, describing the killers as a “lethal combination”.
The schoolgirl was murdered by Urfan Sharif and Beinash Batool in August 2023 after a brutal campaign of abuse – which a judge at the Old Bailey later described as “torture”.
Her body was found in a bunk bed at the family home, after a crying Urfan Sharif dialled 999 from Pakistan, saying he had “killed” and “beaten” his daughter.
The 10-year-old was covered in fractures, bruises and burns.
It became clear that in the weeks before her death, Sara had been beaten at home with items such as a cricket bat and metal pole, and burnt with an iron. She had clearly also suffered a traumatic head injury.
She had been known to social services from birth, and was twice placed in foster care by the time she was three. Later in life, she would be moved between the custody of her father and mother – with both accusing the other of abuse.
In December 2024, a local Child Safeguarding Practice Review was instigated, and its independent report has now been published, concluding that “the system failed Sara” – from social services to the NHS and education.
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“Sara’s death was not caused by one specific malfunction within the safeguarding system,” it said. “Numerous factors came together over many years, which cumulatively laid the foundations for the severe abuse she experienced.”
• Even though the authorities knew Urfan Sharif was a “serial perpetrator of domestic abuse”, that information was “overlooked, not acted on and underestimated by almost all professionals”
• The court hearing in 2019 which gave Urfan Sharif custody did “not maintain sufficient focus on the needs of the children” while the supervision orders put in place to protect her “did not provide adequate safeguards”
• When her primary school reported bruising on her face to social services in the spring of 2023, the case was closed after just six days and “safeguarding processes were not followed”
• Sara was then taken out of school. The report found “Sara’s father and stepmother used home education to keep Sara hidden from view” – the report highlighted safeguarding gaps in the national guidance around home schooling of potentially vulnerable children, and said that locally social services failed to follow up with a home visit
• When it came to the sharing of information, opportunities were “lost to join up all the dots and recognise the dangers” facing the little girl
• There’s no evidence in the children’s services or health records that race, culture, religion or heritage were properly considered, and Sara’s Polish mother was left in court proceedings without a translator
The Surrey Safeguarding Children Partnership said: “All agencies represented by the Partnership take the findings of this report extremely seriously and will work urgently together to agree a joint action plan that puts in place the local learnings from the review.”
The report also contained 15 recommendations, which included calls on the Department for Education to close loopholes around at-risk children being withdrawn from school.
The report also demanded safeguarding teams be better trained in understanding the manipulative behaviours of domestic abusers.
It said agencies must ensure more robust, joined-up safeguarding processes when children are first referred to social care, and called for the impact of culture, race and language to be considered in safeguarding decisions.
Surrey County Council says it will be “working to implement all local recommendations relating to the organisation in full. Many of those are well under way or already complete, but practice is continuously reviewed and this report will help all partners improve further”.
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In a statement, Terence Herbert, chief executive of Surrey County Council, said: “We are deeply sorry for the findings in the report related to us as a local authority. We have already taken robust action to address those relating to Surrey County Council, and that work will continue with every recommendation implemented in full.”
Sharif and Batool were respectively sentenced to at least 40 and 33 years for the murder, while Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, was sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment after being found guilty of causing or allowing Sara’s death.
