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.”
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recommendations, which included calls on the Department for Education to close loopholes around at-risk children being withdrawn from school.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.
