Sara Sharif's father denies her body was jetwashed before family fled to Pakistan

The father of Sara Sharif has denied the little girl's battered body was stripped and jetwashed in the garden before the family fled to Pakistan.

Warning: This story contains details readers may find distressing.

It comes as police released images of a cricket bat and a metal pole which taxi driver Urfan Sharif has admitted using to attack her before she died.

Sharif said he used packaging tape to tie Sara up and also struck her with a mobile phone.

But he has denied biting her on the arm and thigh, burning her with a domestic iron and boiling water, and putting her head in a hood as he carried out punishments for "naughty" behaviour.

Jurors were told Sara's soiled leggings and nappy were discarded in the garden near a jetwash with the tape and hoods in the bin.

The 10-year-old was wearing clean clothes when her body was found in a bunkbed at the family home in Woking, Surrey, after Sharif called police on arrival in Islamabad in August last year, the Old Bailey heard.

Sharif, 42, his wife Beinash Batool, 30, and his brother Faisal Malik, 29, are accused of being party to years-long abuse which culminated in Sara's death.

All three fled to Pakistan before returning to the UK in September 2023 where they were detained.

Sharif previously told the court he took "full responsibility" for Sara's death but has pleaded not guilty to her murder.

Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC suggested all three defendants were involved in her death, saying: "You are all in this together."

He suggested the evidence showed Sara's body was moved from upstairs in the house and taken into the garden, stripped of her dirty leggings and nappy, and cleaned.

The prosecutor asked Sharif: "She wasn't in the garden? You haven't taken her to the shed? You had a lot to do to tidy up, the house was left immaculately tidy and the bin was full of packing tape, various hoods. And the body of Sara was cleaned, wasn't it?

"She wasn't in the clothes she died in when you left the house, so she had been cleaned and washed?

"There was a jetwash out in the garden with her dirty clothes and the rest of the rubbish. Those are the leggings Sara died in, entwined with a filthy nappy, bundled up with two towels, soaking wet."

Sharif had told jurors he only cleaned Sara's head and did not remove her clothes.

Mr Emlyn Jones also asked if Sharif's brother had helped clean up Sara's body, saying: "Somebody did get her out of her clothes, somebody did wash her. Did he do it - Faisal?"

The defendant replied: "No sir, she wasn't washed."

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Sharif denied anything was thrown away on the night Sara died.

Sharif, Batool and Malik deny murder and causing or allowing Sara's death.

The trial was adjourned until Monday.

(c) Sky News 2024: Sara Sharif's father denies her body was jetwashed before family fled to Paki