Jury out in Sara Sharif murder trial
Ten-year-old Sara was found dead at the family home last August.
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A jury has retired in the trial of Sara Sharif’s father, stepmother and uncle who are accused of her murder.
Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, his wife Beinash Batool, 30, and brother Faisal Malik, 29, allegedly all played a part in a campaign of abuse culminating in the 10-year-old’s death last August.
Sara was found dead in a bunkbed at the family home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10 after Sharif called police from Pakistan and said he had beaten her up “too much”.
During the trial, he initially blamed his wife Batool for the catalogue of injuries Sara suffered before telling jurors he accepted “responsibility”.
He admitted hitting Sara with a metal pole, cricket bat and mobile phone but denied putting a hood over Sara’s head, biting her and burning her with a hot iron and boiling water.
Batool and Malik had declined to give evidence but denied involvement in the abuse.
The defendants, of Woking, have denied murder, causing or allowing the death of a child and the alternative offence of manslaughter.
On Tuesday, Mr Justice Cavanagh sent the jury to out to begin deliberating on verdicts shortly before 1pm.
At 4pm, the jury was sent home and told to come back to court at 10am on Wednesday.