Ten-year-old Sara Sharif endured horrific torture and murder in her home on a quiet suburban street in Woking, Surrey, at the hands of her father, Urfan Sharif, 43, and stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30. Following Sara's death, her father, stepmother, and uncle fled to Pakistan, leaving the little girl's body to be discovered by police. Sara, described as a victim of the worst crime the presiding judge had ever encountered, was found half-hidden under a blanket in a bunk bed, bearing approximately 100 injuries and wounds, with her head tied up in a plastic bag.

The discovery of Sara's body came only after Urfan Sharif made a panicked 999 call from Pakistan, informing police of her death. He initially claimed he had "legally" punished Sara after she was naughty and he had "lost it," later attempting to blame his wife in court. This distressing event brought to light severe systemic failings by authorities involved in Sara's short and desperate life, as detailed in a new child safeguarding report into the circumstances of her death.

The report suggests that these authorities "failed to join the dots" and did not dare cause offense to Urfan Sharif or his wife, fearing accusations of racism or Islamophobia. This fear, stemming from what the author describes as a "dangerous, woke, politically correct mindset," reportedly halted proper inquiry and prevented social workers from taking necessary action. Even neighbors, who could hear Sara screaming and noticed her absence from school, reportedly feared being labeled racist and did not sound the alarm. The review, despite acknowledging the system's failure to keep Sara safe, incredibly concluded that no one should be blamed apart from her father and stepmother—a stance criticized as a "cop-out" that fails to ensure future protection for children.

Urfan Sharif had a long and well-documented history of domestic abuse and violence against women and children, even before Sara's birth. He had been reported to police and social services for attacking three women and two children, including a one-month-old baby, yet was never charged with any offence, consistently shifting blame onto his victims. His violent past included holding a woman at knifepoint, choking another with a belt, and imprisoning a girlfriend for five days. Social services were repeatedly called due to accusations of him biting, hitting, burning, pinching, and slapping children, but "no further action was taken" after he blamed Sara's mother, Olga Domin.

Sara was taken into foster care in 2014 at the age of two, with the local authority believing she should be adopted. However, only a 12-month supervision order was put in place "without adequate safeguards." In 2016, Sharif was ordered to attend a domestic violence perpetrator programme, admitting to "extensive and wide-ranging domestic abuse," but only completing eight out of 26 sessions. The significance of this report, despite its "quite shocking reading," was "lost within the system" when a social worker failed to complete an analysis and it wasn't added to Sara's safeguarding report.

Sharif's manipulative behaviour escalated. At Easter 2019, he pressured Sara to make spurious allegations of violence against her mother, claiming Olga tried to drown her and burn her. Doctors failed to investigate the true perpetrator, and a video made by Sharif recording these allegations went unquestioned. Tragically, in October 2019, a judge at Guildford family court ordered Sara to live with Sharif and his new stepmother, Beinash Batool. This "pivotal" decision was based on a flawed report by an inexperienced social worker, and Sara's Polish mother, Olga, became "marginalised" and "cut off" from decisions due to the lack of a court interpreter.

During the COVID lockdown, Sara "effectively disappeared from view" as her father and stepmother began daily beatings. Sharif kept her home from school to hide her injuries. By 2021, Sara's demeanour had changed, and she started wearing a hijab, which was later understood to be an attempt to conceal bruises. Despite experts noting it was highly unusual for a child in her circumstances to wear one, teachers accepted her excuses about emulating her father's Pakistani heritage, and social workers did not question it, fearing "causing offence." Professionals failed to consider Sara's 'race, culture, religion or heritage,' missing vital red flags.

When teachers again raised questions about Sara's bruises in June 2022, Sharif quickly withdrew her for home-schooling. Her school was unaware of Sharif's violent history because it was not in their files. Sara briefly returned to school in March 2023 with three facial bruises, including a golf ball-sized injury to her cheek. The headteacher called social services, but Sharif blamed another child. Data protection concerns reportedly prevented teachers from sharing information, allowing Sharif's lies to stand. After a "superficial analysis," the case was closed without police inquiries just six days later.

On April 17, 2023, Sara was permanently withdrawn from class for home-schooling and was never seen alive outside the home again. A crucial home education visit, scheduled within ten days, was delayed due to staff sickness and annual leave. When the team eventually visited on August 7, they went to the wrong address. Within 24 hours, on August 8, Urfan Sharif fatally beat Sara with a pole. The safeguarding report painfully concluded: "If Sara had been seen, it is likely that the abuse would have come to light." It emphasized that "numerous times before Sara was born and throughout her life," the seriousness of her father as a "serial perpetrator of domestic abuse" was overlooked, not acted on, and underestimated by almost all professionals. As Sara’s natural mother, Olga, wisely commented in tears: "If there has been an accident to a child, like falling down the stairs, you don’t flee the country in secret."