Sara Sharif stepmother reportedly got “the job everyone wants” in jail while waiting trial for murdering the schoolgirl and even cooked for her fellow inmates.
Beinash Batool, 30, was handed a 33-year jail term after she and Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, 42, were found guilty of the torture and murder of Sara Sharif on December 17 last year. The 10-year-old suffered “unimaginable pain, misery and anxiety” as she was repeatedly beaten, burned, bitten and restrained at the family home in Woking, Surrey, the Old Bailey was told.
But during the trial it is reported that Batool was given an “easy” job in the library at HMP Bronzefield, while also given the task of cooking for fellow inmates. Despite the horrific charges that Batool faced, a former inmate at the high security prison who was released in October, said that she was given an enviable role right from the start.
Sara Sharif’s killer dad ‘terrified’ of returning to cell after being slashed with tuna tin lid
Sara Sharif was brutally beaten before her death
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Beinash Batool was jailed for 33 years
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“She got a job in the library in her block almost as soon as she got there,” they told The Sun. “It’s the job everyone wants in there, you only have to work a few days a week and it’s quite easy.” She added: “She was even allowed into the kitchen to cook a meal during the Eid religious festival for fellow prisoners.”
During her sentencing Mr Justice Cavanagh said that Batool was prepared to “sacrifice” her stepdaughter stating: “Put bluntly, you did not care about Sara enough to save her.” Sara’s father Urfan Sharif was jailed for 40 years and her uncle Faisal Malik, 29, who was found guilty of causing or allowing her death, was jailed for 16 years.
Batool is believed to be held at HMP Bronzefield
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Libby Clark, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said at the sentencing: “Sara Sharif was a lively and joyful 10-year-old girl whose life was tragically cut short by the very people who should have protected and cared for her. Today’s sentences reflect the cruelty and gravity of their crimes, and while no sentence can bring Sara back, we hope this outcome is able to provide some small comfort to all those that knew and loved her.”
Sara was found dead in a bunkbed at her home in Woking, Surrey, after her father rang police from Pakistan to confess he had beaten her “too much”. She had suffered 71 “fresh” injuries including 25 broken bones, iron burns on her bottom, scalding marks to her feet, and human bites.
Sara’s father Urfan Sharif
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Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik was also jailed
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Surrey Police/AFP via Getty Imag)
Sharif had hit her with a cricket bat and iron bar, throttled her, and thrown a mobile phone at her head, jurors had heard. Sara was also tied up with packaging tape and her head covered with a makeshift hood during regular bouts of violence that would have left her in excruciating pain, jurors had heard.
Even as she lay dying in Batool’s lap last August 8, taxi driver Sharif had come home and whacked her in the stomach for “pretending”. Batool had told her sister that Sharif would “beat the crap” out of his daughter but failed to do anything to stop it, even calling him home from work to dish out punishments, the court was told.
The abuse began soon after Sara went to live with her father and stepmother in 2019 and she was treated like a “skivvy” and “as if she was worthless”, Mr Justice Cavanagh said. He told the court: “This poor child was battered with great force again and again.”
The violence became so “normalised” that university student Malik failed to act after moving in with the family in December 2022. By January 2023, Sara began wearing a hijab at school to cover up the bruises. Teachers had twice noticed marks on her face, and referred her to social services last March, but the case was dropped within days and the following month Sara was taken out of school.