Sara Sharif's step-mum 'sent WhatsApp messages about dad beating girl, 10, black'

Sara Sharif was beaten 'blue' her stepmother Beinash Batool - on trial for murder with her father and uncle - said in messages from 2021 to her sister, the Old Bailey heard

The stepmother of murdered Sara Sharif sent messages warning the youngster was "literally beaten black”, a court heard.

Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of his daughter’s murder alongside her stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 29. On the second day of their trial it was heard Batool said in messages from 2019 her husband beat the girl “black”.

The prosecution alleges all three played a part in Sara's death after being hooded, restrained, burned, bitten and hit with a belt buckle and pole. Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones said: “As a minimum, it shows Sara was being hurt and injured as long ago as spring of 2021 - so that is more than two years before her death - and Beinash Batool was aware and even on her version of events, she didn't stop it."

In February 2022, the court heard she told another sister Sharif was "beating Sara up ... 'cos she's being naughty". She added: "Urfan's behaviour makes her do it more." Then she told her sister: "Something happens to Sara I will not be able to forgive myself."

In May 2021, she messaged her sister: "Urfan beat the crap out of Sara. She's covered in bruises, literally beaten black. I feel really sorry for Sara, poor girl can't walk. I really want to report him."

Sara was taken out of school in April 2023 and died four months later. Mr Emlyn Jones told jurors: "These messages are only one small part of the overall picture.

"It is the prosecution's case Sara's death was caused by the combined actions of all three adults in the house; for the systematic, if not daily then certainly frequent assault and abuse of that little girl could not have been done without the participation, assistance and encouragement of them all.

"Keeping it from the outside world is just one small aspect of that. It would be no surprise, the prosecution suggests, if Beinash Batool presented only a partial picture of the truth to members of her own family."

Earlier today, the court heard it was reported a former neighbour of Sara said she would hear a child screaming followed by “deathly quiet". Rebecca Spencer told the court she heard the noises “from the moment” the Sharif family moved into a flat in around 2018 to 2019, Mr Emlyn Jones added.

He said Ms Spencer thought the “banging and rattling” sounded like “someone was banging on and pushing at a door” as if trying to open it. Reading a statement from Ms Spencer, Mr Emlyn Jones said: “On the occasions I would hear these banging and rattling sounds, they would often be accompanied by the sounds of a child crying or a screaming, followed by complete silence."

The defendants have all denied Sara's murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16 2022 and August 9 2023.

The Old Bailey trial continues.