Sara Sharif murder sentence appeal bids to be heard

The father and stepmother of Sara Sharif will have bids to appeal against their sentences for the 10-year-old’s murder heard on Thursday.

Urfan Sharif and Beinash Batool were jailed for life with minimum terms of 40 years and 33 years respectively in December last year after being found guilty of Sara’s murder.

Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, was found guilty of causing or allowing her death, and was jailed for 16 years.

All three are seeking to challenge their sentences at the Court of Appeal, with their appeal bids due to be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Thursday morning.

The Solicitor General has also referred Sharif’s sentence to the Court of Appeal as “unduly lenient”, which will be heard at the same time.

Sara was found dead in a bunkbed at the family home in Woking, Surrey, in August 2023.

She had suffered 71 “fresh” injuries, including 25 broken bones, iron burns on her bottom, scalding marks to her feet, and human bites.

Within hours of Sara’s death, Sharif and Batool had booked flights to Pakistan for the whole family, including her siblings.

The defendants returned to the UK on September 13 2023, leaving the children behind, and were detained within minutes of a flight touching down at Gatwick airport.

In a televised sentencing at the Old Bailey in December, Mr Justice Cavanagh said Sara’s death “was the culmination of years of neglect, frequent assaults and what can only be described as torture”, mainly at the hands of Sharif.

The Court of Appeal hearing before the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Mr Justice Soole and Mr Justice Goose is due to begin at 10.30am.