A case review has begun after 10-year-old Sara Sharif’s father and stepmother were convicted of murdering her.
After a 10-week trial, a jury found Urfan Sharif, 42, and Beinash Batool, 30, guilty of murder, and Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, guilty of causing or allowing her death.
Sara’s body was found at the family home in Woking, Surrey, on 10 August 2023, after Sharif called police to admit to having killed Sara, having fled to Pakistan with Batool, Malik and five of Sara’s siblings.
100 injuries on child’s body
Surrey Police said specialist doctors and pathologists found evidence of around 100 separate internal and external injuries on Sara’s body, including a traumatic brain injury, multiple broken bones, extensive bruising and scarring.
Sara Sharif (credit: Surrey Police)
There was also evidence of burns, including one on Sara’s buttocks, which had been intentionally inflicted using a domestic iron, and human bite marks.
The BBC has reported that the family were known to Surrey council from 2010, before Sara was born. This was due to concerns about violence towards the children and domestic abuse perpetrated by Sharif towards Sara’s mother, Olga Sharif, before they separated.
Services’ involvement with the family will now be considered through a local child safeguarding practice review.
‘Perpetrators went to extreme lengths to conceal truth’
Following the trial verdict Surrey council’s executive director for children, families and lifelong learning, Rachael Wardell, said: “Sara’s death is incredibly distressing and we share in the profound horror at the terrible details that have emerged during the trial.”
“The focus of the trial has been on the evidence needed to secure the convictions of those responsible for Sara’s death,” she added.
“This means that until the independent safeguarding review concludes, a complete picture cannot be understood or commented upon. What is clear from the evidence we’ve heard in court is that the perpetrators went to extreme lengths to conceal the truth from everyone.”
Wardell said the council would “play a full and active part in the forthcoming review”, a point echoed by Surrey Police, for whom detective chief superintendent Mark Chapman said: “The murder of a child is shocking, but the injuries, abuse and neglect that Sara suffered during her short life has made this case particularly disturbing.”
‘Profound weaknesses in child protection system’
Children’s Commissioner for England Rachel de Souza said that Sara’s murder was “a heartbreaking reminder of the profound weaknesses in our child protection system that, as a country, we have failed time and time again to correct”.
On the back of the case, de Souza made three proposals for reform that are already in the government’s plans:
- Making schools the fourth statutory partner – alongside the police, health and local authorities – in local safeguarding arrangements.
- Improving oversight of children education at home – as Sara was before her death – through a register of children not in school and requiring councils to sign off on home educating requests for vulnerable children. (Under the government’s plans, council consent would be required when the child were subject to a child protection enquiry or on a child protection plan.)
- Giving each child a unique identifier to improve information sharing and stop them falling through gaps in support and protection.
De Souza also called for the defence of reasonable punishment, which permits parents to smack their children in England to be removed, something the government is also reportedly considering (source: BBC).
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There cannot be another case like this. Child care needs to be updated with all agencies being involved in any suspected child abuse. All need to be considering the case simultaneously – family court judge, welfare, police, medical professionals, witnesses and any other relevant parties including the abused. Children are often neglected when it comes to their future. Always suspect the worst until proved otherwise.
I agree 100%. I admit to having been affected deeply by this child’s cruel death which could have been prevented. I note, as a retired teacher, that Sara’s school reported their concerns which were not followed up inspite of her being removed from school to be “home schooled”. Surely the alarm bells should have rung at this point! I’ve written “home schooled” in inverted commas because I honestly think that ALL children, inspite of the clause in the 1944 Education Act, should be accounted for. In my various volunteering roles since my long career in teaching, I have come across many children who are not receiving any education although “homeschooled” and I find this hard to accept based on how teachers are held accountable under OFSTED but parents/home educators aren’t!
Totally agree, I was beaten tortured and starved as a child and to see it still happening in this day and age breaks my heart,I am ,62 now and it still effects me every day, that poor girl didn’t deserve this, time for change now
Same here Steve. The system in place isn’t working.
Just having another case review isn’t enough.
They had known the family for a long time and made no checks when she was withdrawn from school, how is it not already in law that vulnerable children are visited.
I can imagine, the fear and terror suffered by Sara and it absolutely makes me want to take to the streets and march.
I completely agree with Robert Thomson SUSPECT THE WORSE UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE.
This case is horrific and the failings and neglect of Any action to protect Sarah is just appalling.
This is NOT a home ed issue
A register would have had no impact
She was deregistered from school with the same LA therefore already known to the EHE team effectively on their register.
This was a total failure of safeguarding systems which rely on professionals to be the voice of the child not building a relationship with the child developing trust and being resilient/relentless in that support.
She was known to every agency those professionals failed her but it’s not a home education issue except the la ehe team also failed to follow it up
There is always someone else to blame in children’s services but this would not have been prevented by a register
This was the failings are someone standing up to a mysogynistic male. He even spoke derogatory to the female social services staff. No one said to him that’s unacceptable but instead got a male to take over! Yet again every one pandering to his needs over Sara’s needs!
This is about educating this male population that mysogyny is not acceptable in the UK.
The social services safeguarding person interviewed on Sky said nothing new. Reviews don’t change anything and their multi agency policies have been in use for over 20 years and obviously don’t work.
One might wonder where the Children’s Commissioner has been over recent years. I don’t recall England’s Children’s Commissioner expressing opposition or concern when statutory Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards were disbanded following the recommendation of Sir Alan Wood and with schools no longer to be a required statutory partner alongside local authorities, health service commissioners, and the police in the new required arrangements (Probation alongside the family courts – with others – might also seem to be an omission). I do recall the current Children’s Commissioner not supporting – as in Wales and Scotland – a ban on physical assaults on children as a punishment – at the time she wanted more evidence that physical assaults as punishment on children should be stopped. And where has she been when others have campaigned for years for a statutory requirement that there should be a register of home educated children with annual welfare checks (opposed by an influential lobby of home-educating parents who seem to have frightened off the previous government to whom the Commissioner was close). And elsewhere today the Children’s Commissioner has set us all up to fail as she now wants it to be ensured that no child dies as a consequence of abuse ever again. Her crystal ball is clearly more effective than mine. And where are the Children’s Commissioner’s comments for the media on the impact of 14 years of politically-chosen austerity leading to cuts in services, with more families struggling, so that hard pressed social workers and others (such as health visitors and the police) are having to close work down quickly to take on the rapid flow of new incoming work, with the consequence that it is more likely that children like Sara – and dangerous men like her father – will not get the attention and action they need. And on this latter point, there might be a question of why a man who apparently was known to be violent to women and children was not pursued and faced criminal prosecution. BUT be wary of experienced social workers being held back not to help children and families and instead to be, as trained by Frontline, ‘child protection social workers’, with as announced today by the chief social worker this is to be rolled out right across England in multi-agency child protection teams. Along with the mandatory requirement that teachers and others report any possible suspicion of abuse, it will likely lead to more child protection investigations as others seek the involvement of experienced social workers – and the insurance cover it provides for referrers – but with these experienced social workers just doing investigations and monitoring child protection plans. More families will probably experience the threat and trauma of a child protection investigation, the majority of which as now will lead to no further action, but as this child protection activity will be prioritised over help for families when the budgets are tight and tough it is family help and support which will again be squeezed. Quite a skew to what once upon a time social workers and children’s social services thought they were to be doing and what is required by the key legislation.
Thank you. The simplistic responses from people who should know better are infuriating. Of course we all have questions, but let’s find out more before we jump to judgements.
Sometimes the glaring facts repeatedly ignored by professionals really do necessitate “simplistic responses”. Social workers are meant to observe and critically appraise how households, partner relationships and care of children is happening. Aren’t we? There is nothing in the reported milestones, from 2010 onwards, that suggest passing comments based on that is somehow “infuriating”. We are all social workers and we all know what pressures we work under. That however doesn’t mean we can’t feel a child clearly was let down leading to her torture and murder. How are we meant to improve our practice if we always have to wait for more words when we at least have enough now to know that perhaps there might have been a different story for this child if professionals made different decisions. What I’m infuriated with is the knee jerk response that as social workers we should never admit, own up, feel contrite. That isn’t disloyalty to colleagues or rubbishing of a profession but pride in wanting to be better.
My thoughts exactly. I work in the drug and alcohol sector and am no stranger to the effects of the ‘blame game’.
Well put Ray
For me there are many questions and matters that need to be explored by the case review. This should include the pressures placed on Social Workers, and indeed on other professionals, as a result of the demands of their respective roles. This impacts upon their ability to effectively do their job.
Enquiries need to be started with the child.
The focus on multi agency input has excluded the child from that process.
Those families like these who want to cover it up will most likely not tell their GP they burned her with the iron for being naughty or bit her they won’t take her to a and e for fractured ribs what does making enquiries with health tell you. The police have early net the kids even if there is contact GP nay have done but with phone consultations and 10 min appointments are we really expecting them to know anything education recorded and reported concerns but what’s a bit of bruising on a child with a family history of serious abuse it was probably just the roller skates…..
If enquiries started with the child and building a relationship with the child not focusing on professionals then there would be some chance at least the system doesn’t work
Family and members of the public the children are ignored if heard at all in favour of professionals with probably no contact. With the child. The person who should be central to the process.
She hadn’t been seen by social care for 4 years. But multiple concerns raised and recorded….
Hi Wendy
But did that real engagement with Sara as the child consistently occur? You seem to suggest not, the reason being that Social Workers have become too obsessed with form-filling and bureaucracy at the behest of their managers to satisfy Ofsted and government demand for statistics. The total mindset and culture of children’s services has to change. This is a view that has been around for years so it it isn’t new
There are insufficient bodies on the front-line in order to do an effective protective role. This applies to the whole range of public services, hence for example people struggle to achieve an appointment with a GP, there have been remaining long-standing waiting lists for hospital treatment, police cannot always readily respond to public need, etc
The issue are poor consequences on those who perpetrate domestic abuse. The bias has always been on women to uproot their lives and leave their support network, plus children, if they have any while perpetrators go onto abuse others. Domestic abuse is not properly managed by the CPS or family courts
That is so true. Social workers do not cover DA during their degree apart from if they have a placement with a DA service, therefore they lack understanding of the traits of an abuser, the dynamics of an abusive relationship and are blindsided by the perpetrator’s manipulating, calculated manner. There is too much victim blaming and secondary abuse from agencies towards the victim and the perpetrator becomes invisible, carrying on with his life whilst the woman’s and their children’s lives are shattered. Due to the system, the victim can be at risk for many years because the perpetrator carries on the abuse through their children, who are not protected and contact is given to these monsters because of PR. On many occasions the children’s and the mother’s wishes against contact, due to the risk, are ignored.
Time was social workers as a matter of routine took it upon themselves to educate themselves to improve their knowledge and practice. We don’t have to rely on degrees or trainers to make us understand. No one taught me how to peel a potato but I can still make mashed potato. Learning is having the curiosity to understand that we live in this world where change is constant and often confusing. It’s every social workers responsibility to improve themselves not expect others to do it for them. “I wasn’t taught that” should never be a crutch for social workers. Life time learning and all that.
Despite the expense and numerous reviews undertaken over the years into the death of vulnerable children like Sara, and recommendations, it has not stopped the abuse, mistreatment and neglect of children like Sara. As long as front line social workers are not adequately resourced, are denied access to protective caseloads as well as the professional support to carryout their jobs effectively their will continue to be tragic deaths of vulnerable children like Sara. Similarly, other services that work alongside Children Services and social workers are often under resourced too and are struggling to meet their duties and demands on their services. This in turn impacts on effective sharing of vital information in a timely manner that can save lives of those who are must vulnerable in society. Such work is intensive, involves building relationships and takes skill and is time consuming and therefore, overloading social workers often does not help when dealing with complex cases. I work in Adults Services and often the focus is mitigating risks of vulnerable adults and as part of safeguarding a vulnerable adult undertaking and reviewing risk assessments is vital. . Where was the risk assessment in Sara’s case before her father could unilaterally decide to remove her from school. Given the history of concerns of domestic violence and previous physical evidence of possible abuse, I cannot understand that Sara was allowed to be removed from school in this way ? Was it perceived as one less child to monitor ? In addition, I question, if the reports are right, the reason Sara’s case was closed after 6 days ? Was it because the service did not what to be seen as being over intrusive in a muslim families life and accused of racism or was it a way of managing a growing waiting list ? What really upsets me the most was when I saw those mages on the BBC of Sara playing her guitar and singing is that no one asked whether anyone talked to Sara to find out how she felt about her home life and being removed from school, her friends and teachers, which once social services closed her case, was the only possible life line she had whilst she was continuing to be exposed to abuse at home. . No child should be left to be exposed to such inhuman treatment and abuse that Sara and other children have faced, and those who are responsible for her death should be held to account including those who took the fateful decision to close her case and agreed that she could be removed from school.
I think we all need to start owning up that though vacancies have an impact on our ability to be thorough our approaches are deficient outside of that. It’s appaling that time and again our leaders hide behind the family were good at concealing argument. It’s our job to go beyond what adults direct us towards. We should not be demonised when we say we don’t believe family narratives. We should not be punished and our professionalism called into question if we believe we are being lied to. Our focus has to move away from trying time and again against all reasonable evidence to leave children in the care of repeat abusers. That all said we all know that this review will say what previous reviews have said and we’ll feel.sorry fir ourselves thst the public vilify us while many other children are being subjected to the same horrific abuse. We should story with disbelief and work our way back to be proven wrong if that assumption is wrong.
see the child alone, talk to the child alone, draw, go out to her favourite park, walk with her alone, chat, have a bite to eat in a cafe, with her alone, and frequently. A child at risk or on a child protection order or supervision order or whatever this poor child was on, must be seen alone, away form the parents and family and a relationship must be established with them if a social worker is to hope to protect them; as is their duty.
In my opinion part of the problem is that a high state of anxiety exists meaning that unnecessary referrals that don’t need to be made are sent into the system. For example the recent referral of Kirsty Allsopp for allowing her 16 year old to travel across Europe. The outcome is a system which is overrun meaning that proper focus can’t be given to those cases that warrant attention. Finally, as predicted more measures are being muted when there’s evidence that the previous ones haven’t even been properly implemented yet.
Social work does not need to feed into community anxieties all the time though does it. We are meant to be logical, analytical, skilled and informed aren’t we? We can see when something like the example given above is generated more by social media metrics than actual safeguarding concerns and should act accordingly. Truth be told like most citizens a good number of social workers love these frivolous referrals, remember Kate Moss, because they get to do a bit of ‘glamour’ amongst the usual grind. We don’t always have to rush out the door for often ineffectual investigations. To do that of course requires competent and confident managers which much as I appreciate ours, is not a universal skill amongst supervisors. Informed risk taking used to be our bread and butter. Cover our posteriors is the bottom line now.
My heart goes out to you Sara,may you rest in peace.
You should have had a voice and been visible.
It will be interesting to see the outcome and recommendations of the serious case review.
Social work is very adept at “reflecting on lessons from analyses of serious case reviews” (ref. CC article about Professor Marian Brandon 15.11.24). However, in the light of the gruesome death of Sara Sharif (and let’s not forget the similarly brutal deaths of other children publicised in the past week or two) one might be forgiven for wondering if there have been any meaningful or tangible outcomes associated with all of these “reflections, lessons and analyses” or indeed from the reviews themselves!
The safeguarding requirements, recommendations and guidance to which any agency related to the needs of children MUST adhere are all well known for their comprehensive and detailed scope and yet somehow cases with as many red flags waving and klaxons blaring as that of poor Sara still manage to slip with monotonous regularity through the (arguably exquisitely fine-meshed) safeguarding net.
The difficulty is that the number of likely agency stakeholders in these sorts of cases, along with their individual internal procedures AND their inter-agency mechanisms, is so large and complex as to prove essentially impossible to monitor or supervise.
I fear we may be coming up against the law of diminishing returns in terms of the value of further case reviews and consequent revisions and additions to safeguarding practice which it must be stressed very boldly is NOT the sole responsibility of social workers.
Written in this article states the following;
What is clear from the evidence we’ve heard in court is that the perpetrators went to extreme lengths to conceal the truth from everyone.”
And here we are again with social services attempting to deflect away from the fact that ‘they knew and were aware of what was happening to Sara and were aware that Urfan Sharif was abusive and violent towards women and children. The public is not buying into the empty rhetoric and mantra of ‘lessons will be learned’. And they were not ‘missed opportunities’, the courts and social services gave that vile individual license to abuse that poor child. Social services and the family courts have blood on their hands once again!!
Well said. This child should never have been placed with her father in the first place. Sara was totally let down by her Father and Step mother and all the other sectors which were supposed to be looking out for her . Why is this happening again and again? A full overhaul of Social Services is needed.
There appeared to have been multiple red flags which indicates Sara would have been at signicant risk.Just like the case of Victoria Climbi multiple agency’s and external people could and should have said or done something to ensure Sara was visible.
Social workers do not make decisions or work alone when we safeguard vulnerable children.Does this not tell those in senior position’s that something needs to change to bring about change.
It is not acceptable to claim social workers where inexperienced where are the well informed manager’s giving guidance and support,where are senior managers ensuring the workforce is committed to all service users and the profession to ensure safe pratice?.The issues are wider and should be acknowledged if anyone cares to be open and honest!!
I would agree social services and the hole Safeguarding services need to ask itself what is our role? What are we really offering vulnerable children.If nothing is improving should we not be honest about this.Why not listen to what social workers have been telling senior manager’s and those who hold financial responsibility for the service.
Every child should be protected to the best of our ability.Social work has lost direction in my opinion it is not a profession where by you can take your focus of the principals and why we are involved in the first place.
Again I stress there are wider issues at play here which are not all down to social workers is it not!!
Perhaps as part of training and development manager’s should ensure social workers read serious case reviews where by they will pick up similarities from different case’s to inform pratice.
As with any profession you should have formal traing available,however you should also include your own research to inform your own practice (should we not )
Ask yourself what was learnt from any of these reviews? Do we has social workers read,analyse,reflect or disscuss the case’s?
As long as the prevailing orthodoxy of social worker is that all children are better cared for by their birth or step parents/families children will be left vulnerable. If our assessments are underpinned by trying to facilitate that we will, willfully or not, not see, we will not acknowledge and we certainly will not have the confidence to tell our supervisors parents/families might be lying to us and are in fact actually or potentially abusive. It really didn’t matter that the social worker in this case was “inexperienced”, they would have absorbed the culture in which they worked and also be driven by the prevailing ideology of established practice. All social workers irrespective of their years doing the job are scared at worse or weary at best of their managers. We have seen what is meted out to colleagues who question and challenge. We all internalise bullying and prevailing orthodoxies. No review will acknowledge that though so sadly whatever the lessons we no doubt will be told to learn, the fundamental will remain unscathed.
I totally agree, given that Sara was known to children’s services as an unborn child due to her father being a known risk to women and children why was she allowed to live with him – what was done to mitigate the risks?
Although I do believe people are capable to positive change I never forget the risks that they have previously posed and this appears to have been forgotten as has the fact that domestic abuse perpetrators are often very calculated and manipulative. I also feel that there is not enough professional curiosity across the board and a reluctance to acknowledge disguised compliance from parents. again it would appear that what is not being spoken about in the media is the years of austerity and the expectation that professionals can do more with less .
It’s just so frustrating that this is still happening as the same issues are still at the fore after enquiries such as Victoria Climbie, Baby P and all of the many other tragic deaths. We have had legislation changes, Working Together statutory guidance and still these tragedies show that the child was not “seen and heard”, information was not shared and the history and cumulative risk have not been given enough consideration.
I for one agree with your comments.
Social work assessments are evidence base.If your assessment/ judgement identify a risk to the child regardless of race,culture,beliefs, whether it be from the parent,step-parent,family members or extended family members all are possible high risk until proven other wise. The impact/risk of abuse is the same for any child.
As professionals we should be in a position to express our opinions without repercussions if in the best interest of the child, we can demonstrate this and all other issues have been taken into consideration.
Sadly to do so in some cases has repercussions for the worker who attempts to express a professional view.(Does this indicate a management issue and the work cultural environment?)
Social workers do not make decisions in isolation.
Does anyone know who is carrying out this “independent “ review and when the report will be issued? Also, has a case review already been carried out, if so what were the findings?
Does anyone know who is carrying out this “independent “ review and when the report will be issued?
Ours is not to ask but to wait to be told we need to learn lessons. Being expected to trust in our betters passes for public engagement in social work now.
I have been following the discussion and agree with many of the comments and views expressed above. It is frightening to think that in light of the tragic death of Sara that there are other social workers in the work place who are concerned about the welfare of a child remaining within the family home, but yet are afraid to question and challdnge the status quo though fear of being sacked or/and worse being ostrized by fellow workers, hence bullied out of job or/and referred to SWE and seeing both their careers and reputation in tatters. .There needs to be protection worthy of the name for whistleblowers in both Children and Adult Services. It is essential that front line staff and those who depend on the service need to be heard and have a greater say in how services are run. . Unfortunately, further reviews into Sara death will not stop such child abuse cases from happening again as demonstated by the previous reviews into childrens death at the hands of their parents or other carers, that have taken place and fundemental changes in leglislation and practice. Governments need to recognise that until services are properly funded that I meant to be protecting vulnerable adults and children as well as social workers caseloads are protected, children and adults will continue to slip through the net in spite of social work intervention. Of course, there are other virulent factors at play (i.e like race and culture) that equally need to be addressed,
Trina,I agree with all your comments, how can we claim to be the voice of vulnerable children,young people and vulnerable adults if when you expect safe,respectful and fair decisions are made for all does not happen.
When you challenge such decisions and behaviours leaves the employee vulnerable or a child’s needs remaing invisable with possible devastating consequences.
Vulnerable children, young people and vulnerable adults are human beings as are employees who face challenges.
We all play a part in society and its development in one way or another.Do we not?
Therefore is it not time to ensure positive change? Which provides the workforce with the necessary funding, training and appropriate leadership.The service is a necessary service and profession.
Social workers need to have the confidence to challenge poor pratice/poor leadership,lack of resources, training and decision making when it is clear pratice/decisions may not be in the best interest of the child.This will not happen when faced with consequences which are life changing for the worker who attempts to challenge and ask questions in the interest of the child.(Social workers do not hold responsibility for funding when or where finding is allocated ours is to recommend resources to meet the child’s individual needs)
(So many questions)what exactly have we learnt from each serious case reviews? what will we learn from this review? to ensure the child’s voice is heared and they are visible to all services be that (health,school, school nurse,police,social services, supervision/guidance,school mentor,childrens guardian,neighbours, family members,support services,access to electronic information).The underlying issues are not all down to social work practice.
Social workers especially newly qualified social workers need training to challenge what may be a wrong decision until proven other wise.
Research indicates newly qualified social workers may experience a lack of confidence in their skillset. It is common for those entering the profession to experience (imposter syndrome) or to doubt their abilities (Urwin, 2017).
Despite demonstrating practice behaviors necessary for competent social work practice prior to graduation, new social workers may still feel as though they do not have the abilities needed to appropriately work with clients. (Jan2024) Dawn Apgar /Katherine Dolar.
Therefore should the workforce not have access to the necessary research,support,supervision and training to support a system which should be protecting vulnerable children.The role of a team manager is not just about tick boxes,it requires multiple skill sets to enable a team function to the best of it’s ability.We are working with vulnerable children!!
In my opinion social workers and newly qualified social workers want an environment whereby they can learn and develop,not one where they are used to mask underlying issues not in their control (unless proven other wise).
The profession needs to be open,honest and address the many issues in plain sight.Masking the issues does not address what needs to change.
This was the case of no one standing up to Urfan sharif. Even the female social workers said he spoke derogatory to them and instead of holding him accountable for this actions, they got a male social worker to take over. What message did that give Urfan…..carry on treating women and children badly!
No one stood up to him! He was mysogynistic and instead of saying it’s wrong to treat women and girls like this, everyone bent over backwards and rewarded him! He felt he was invincible because that is how we treated him. How can we trust a 7 year old Sara to say anything else to social workers. Even she was being manipulated by him and too young to make that decision to live with him. He clearly manipulated her all along.
Wake up people and realise the main issue in this case was mysogyny and everyone around tip toeing to avoid being branded a racist! Same as gang rape cases! Haven’t we learnt yet!