The father of 10-year-old Sara Sharif admitted killing his daughter in a phone call to police after he had fled the country, a court heard this week. 

In an eight-and-a-half minute call from Pakistan at 2.47am on 10 August, which led to the discovery of Sara’s body at the home address in Hammond Road, Horsell, Urfan Sharif told a police operator, "I killed my daughter...I beat her up, it wasn't my intention to kill her, I beat her up too much...she was naughty over the last three four weeks...I was giving her punishment...to sort her out...I'm a cruel father." 

Opening the case at the Old Bailey, prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC told the court that the call was made about an hour after Sharif, his partner Beinash Batool and his brother, Faisal Malik, along with five of Sara’s siblings, arrived in Pakistan after taking a flight to Islamabad the night before (9 August).

 Mr Emlyn Jones also described a note which was found next to Sara’s body in Urfan Sharif’s handwriting in which he said he was responsible for Sara’s death. 

 Mr Emlyn Jones said that Sara had been subjected to violent assaults for “weeks and weeks at least” and described the injuries she had suffered, which included extensive bruising, broken bones, burns and bite marks. He said there were also signs of a traumatic brain injury. 

 He explained that Urfan Sharif, 42, Beinash Batool, 30, and Faisal Malik, 29, were all jointly charged with Sara’s murder and that they had “all played their part in the violence and mistreatment which resulted in her death”. 

 He said it was “inconceivable” that one of them alone, or two of them, could have carried out what amounted to “a campaign of abuse without the complicity, participation, assistance and encouragement of the others”. 

  All three are also charged with causing or allowing the death of a child. 

  Mr Emlyn Jones explained that there was no issue about the manner of Sara’s death, and “no significant challenge to the evidence of the number, type and age of the injuries she had suffered”.

However, he said that all three defendants are denying that they were the one responsible for the violence and abuse Sara suffered, with each of them blaming one or both of the others, to shift the blame away from themselves. 

The case continues.