\n<\/p>\n
Services in Surrey failed to identify that Sara Sharif was at risk of abuse, did not question unexplained bruising, and staff members visited the wrong address the day before her murder, a safeguarding review has found.<\/p>\n
Sara, 10, was killed by her father, Urfan Sharif, and her stepmother, Beinash Batool, in August 2023 after years of escalating brutality that left her with bruises, burns, human bite marks and at least 25 fractures.<\/p>\n
She was found dead in a bunk bed at the family home after her father fled to Pakistan, leaving a handwritten note saying he had \u201clost it\u201d.<\/p>\n
A child safeguarding practice review, commissioned after Sara\u2019s murder, revealed that on 7 August, the day before Sara was killed, the council\u2019s home education team attempted to carry out a home visit but went to the family\u2019s old address.<\/p>\n
The mistake was spotted when staff returned to the office, but a rescheduled visit wasn\u2019t due to take place until September.<\/p>\n
The review concluded that multiple agencies \u201cat many points of her life\u201d had failed to grasp the full scale of danger she was in and it urged services to \u201cmaintain the capacity to \u2018think the unthinkable\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sharif and Batool were later jailed for life, with Sharif receiving a minimum term of 40 years and Batool a minimum of 33 years. Sara\u2019s uncle, Faisal Malik, who was living in the house at the time, was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child and sentenced to 16 years in jail.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Urfan Sharif (left) and Beinash Batool. <\/span> Photograph: Surrey Police\/PA<\/p>\n It found that the \u201cseriousness and significance of [her] father as a serial perpetrator of domestic abuse was overlooked, not acted on and underestimated by almost all professionals\u201d involved in her case.<\/p>\n Surrey children\u2019s services \u201cdid not identify that Sara was at risk of being abused\u201d or respond to unexplained bruising and her changed demeanour.<\/p>\n \u201cSara\u2019s situation was not one where information has only come together with the benefit of hindsight,\u201d the review said. \u201cA great deal of information, especially about the risks posed to her by her father, was available but opportunities were lost to join up all the dots.\u201d<\/p>\n It added: \u201cSara\u2019s father and stepmother proved to be a lethal combination, and with hindsight it is clear that they should never have been trusted with the care of Sara.\u201d<\/p>\n The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said Sara\u2019s death \u201cwas an appalling tragedy that could \u2013 and should \u2013 have been avoided\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe review rightly highlights the glaring failures and missed opportunities across all agencies which led to Sara\u2019s death \u2013 we will take every step to help make sure that no child is left invisible to the services that are there to keep them safe.\u201d<\/p>\n Sara was immediately placed on a child protection plan at her birth in 2013 owing to existing concerns about her parents and abuse towards her siblings.<\/p>\n She was briefly placed in foster care in 2014 and later a refuge after her biological mother, Olga Domin, accused Sharif of domestic abuse.<\/p>\n After a family court ruling in October 2019, Sara returned to live with her father and stepmother, and she was withdrawn from school in 2023, after which she \u201cdisappeared from view\u201d until her body was discovered on 9 August.<\/p>\n The review criticised legislation which meant there was \u201cno requirement for a formal discussion between parents and professionals\u201d about her being homeschooled, despite her previous contact with social services.<\/p>\n It also said there was an \u201cover-reliance\u201d on Sara\u2019s views without proper consideration of how hard it is for children to talk about abuse.<\/p>\n <\/span> Sara Sharif’s father and stepmother sentenced to life in prison \u2013\u00a0video <\/span><\/p>\n At no time during her life did Sara reveal the abuse she was suffering and she outwardly appeared \u201ccheerful and loyal\u201d to her father who \u201cgroomed and manipulated her\u201d, as well as the professionals supposed to help her.<\/p>\n The review said that when Sara started wearing a hijab at school, aged eight, the school accepted the explanation given by the child and her stepmother, but expert advice suggested it would be \u201chighly unusual\u201d for a young child to wear the hijab without family members or peers doing the same.<\/p>\n \u201cThis confirms the need for easy access to advice for all practitioners who may lack knowledge about the impact of race\/culture\/religion on children,\u201d the review said.<\/p>\n It also criticised Domin\u2019s lack of access to an interpreter during the legal proceedings, which led to Sara being placed in her father\u2019s care, meaning that her biological mother\u2019s voice was \u201clost\u201d.<\/p>\n Tim Oliver, the Conservative leader of Surrey county council, said: \u201cThis horrific and incredibly sad situation was the direct result of adults murdering an innocent child they should have looked after and cared for.<\/p>\n \u201cI am certain that everyone involved with this family will have reflected on what more could have been done to protect Sara. I am deeply sorry for the findings in the report that relate to us as a local authority.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will now act on those findings and continue to review and strengthen our culture, systems and processes designed to support good practice in working with children and families. Many of the recommendations have already been implemented locally, and I call on the government to review the findings and, where appropriate, legislate for the changes in the national system that it calls for.\u201d<\/p>\n In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helpline International<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Services in Surrey failed to identify that Sara Sharif was at risk of abuse, did not question unexplained bruising, and staff members visited the wrong address the day before her murder, a safeguarding review has found. Sara, 10, was killed by her father, Urfan Sharif, and her stepmother, Beinash Batool, in August 2023 after years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[1054,681,914,131,189,4646,3033,1085,9354,19079,2161,10998,3038],"class_list":{"0":"post-33267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-address","9":"tag-child","10":"tag-council","11":"tag-day","12":"tag-finds","13":"tag-murder","14":"tag-protection","15":"tag-review","16":"tag-sara","17":"tag-sharifs","18":"tag-staff","19":"tag-visited","20":"tag-wrong"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}