Sara Sharif‘s father has told jurors he ‘takes full responsibility’ for the death of his 10-year-old daughter.
Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, made the admission under cross-examination as his wife Beinash Batool, 30, sobbed in the dock of the Old Bailey on Wednesday.
He confessed that he had battered the 10-year-old schoolgirl with a cricket bat and a metal pole.
He also accepted that he had beaten her in the days before her death, causing fractures all over her body.
Previously, Sharif had sought to blame Batool for killing his daughter but in a dramatic admission, told jurors: ‘I accept every single thing.’
Sara Sharif was found dead at the family home in Woking, Surrey, last August 10
Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial for the murder of his 10-year-old daughter Sara
Sara was found dead at the family home in Woking, Surrey, last August 10 after the defendants fled to Pakistan.
The 10-year-old suffered dozens of injuries including human bite marks and iron burns, jurors have heard.
Caroline Carberry, KC, defending his wife Beinash Batool, 30, asked: ‘Did you beat her? Did you inflict injuries on her’
Speaking softly in the dock, he nodded, saying: ‘Yes.’ He added: ‘I take full responsibility.’
He denied biting or burning his daughter when asked to look at a folder detailing the injuries on her body. ‘I can’t do that. I can’t look at it. I take full responsibility,’ he said.
Sara Sharif had at least 71 external injuries on her body when she was found dead, a court previously heard
Beinash Batool (left) and Faisal Malik deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child
Ms Carberry said: ‘Did you use the cricket bat to inflict these injuries.’
He said: ‘Yes ma’am.’
She went on: ‘Did you use a white metal pole to cause these marks.’
He answered: ‘Yes ma’am.’
He said he took ‘full responsibility’ for breaking bones in her neck, but he did not know if he used a belt to cause the injury.
Batool fled the dock in tears as he confessed. The Old Bailey trial was paused this morning after the dramatic admissions.
The schoolgirl was found dead in her bunk bed at home in Woking, Surrey after Sharif and Batool fled to Pakistan where he made a 999 call on August 10 last year confessing: ‘I killed my daughter’.
She had suffered at least 71 external injuries, including dozens of broken bones.
Police released this photo of Sara Sherif last September
A postmortem examination revealed ten spinal fractures and further fractures to her right collar bone, both shoulder blades, both arms, both hands, three separate fingers, bones near the wrist in each hand, two ribs and her hyoid bone in the neck.
Sharif had denied causing any of the injuries throughout his trial, but on his seventh day on the witness box today, he asked if he could say something to jurors.
He told them: ‘I did what I did. I want do admit it, that it is all my fault.
‘That I admit what I said in my (999) phone call and my written note.’
He asked to sit down and wept as Ms Carberry asked: ‘She died because you beat her. So that is true?’
He said: ‘Yes ma’am. I take full responsibility.
But he shook his head when asked if he intended to cause serious harm or to kill her.
Sharif, Batool and Malik, all deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.