Source: Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) published on this website Friday 13 December 2024

The father and stepmother of a 10-year-old girl whose body was discovered in her bed after the family had fled to Pakistan have today been convicted of her murder.

Urfan Sharif and Beinash Batool have been found guilty of murdering Sara Sharif following what the court heard was a “campaign of abuse”.

Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, who was living in the house at the time, was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child. The prosecution case was that the trio were all complicit in causing her death.

The jury at the Old Bailey heard that Sara was a victim of assaults and abuse for weeks with injuries including fractures, burns, bruising and a traumatic head injury. Such was the severity of her injuries leading up to her death, the post mortem concluded that Sara died from complications from multiple injuries and neglect and could not give a definitive cause of death.

After Sara died at the family home in Byfleet, Surrey on 8 August, Sara’s step mother Beinash Batool called a travel agency to enquire about flights to Pakistan. Her father Urfan Sharif eventually booked the one-way flights for the next day, and when asked why they were so urgent, he claimed his cousin had died.

Urfan called police on 10 August, saying he had “legally punished” Sara and she had died, before claiming he had beaten her, but not intended to kill her.

Police found Sara’s body in the family home with a note written by Urfan, saying he had killed her and had “lost it”. The trio returned to the UK on 13 September 2023 and they were arrested on arrival in the UK from Pakistan.

Building the case

Sharif, Batool and Malik all accepted that the abuse to Sara took place within the family home in the weeks leading up to her death, but all denied murdering her.

Timelines were produced to account for the whereabouts of each defendant hour by hour and day by day during the relevant period, which used mobile phone evidence, Malik’s work record, the location data for Sharif’s car and usage of bank cards. This helped to evidence who was in the house at any time and when each of the three defendants was responsible for Sara’s care.

The court also heard evidence from neighbours of shouting and screaming, including a “single high-pitched scream” two days before Sara’s death, which was described as sounding like a scream of someone in pain.

Sara started to wear a hijab to school from January 2023, which hid much of her face. In March 2023, the school noticed bruising to her face, which was only visible when the hijab moved away from her face.  Just a month later, Urfan emailed the school to say Sara would be home schooled with immediate effect.

Libby Clark from the Crown Prosecution Service said:

“Sara was a happy, outgoing and lively child described as always laughing, who was cruelly abused and murdered by those closest to her. None of us can imagine how appalling and brutal Sara’s treatment was in the last few weeks of her short life. The injuries inflicted on her were absolutely horrendous. After Sara died, instead of calling 999, the three defendants immediately made plans to flee the country, thinking only of themselves and not telling police Sara was dead until they had safely landed in Pakistan.

“We were able to build a strong case, showing where each defendant was in the weeks running up to Sara’s death using mobile phone evidence, CCTV sightings and work records. In a small house with such a big family, it would have been immediately obvious to all the adults what was happening to Sara. Yet none of them took any action to stop it or report it. They all played their part in the violence that led to her tragic death.

“This was a complex case with much liaison with foreign authorities and our CPS international unit played a significant role in helping us to prosecute this case successfully”. We have today secured justice for Sara, a bubbly young girl, who was killed by the adults who should have protected her”.

Source: Church of England published on this website Wednesday 11 December 2024 by Jill Powell

The Lead Bishops for Safeguarding, Joanne Grenfell, Julie Conalty and Robert Springett have written to survivors and their advocates following the Archbishop of Canterbury’s speech in the House of Lords.

We write after watching Archbishop Justin’s farewell speech in the House of Lords yesterday.  We have heard from several of you about the distress and anger that this has caused you.

Both in content and delivery, the speech was utterly insensitive, lacked any focus on victims and survivors of abuse, especially those affected by John Smyth, and made light of the events surrounding the Archbishop’s resignation. It was mistaken and wrong. We acknowledge and deeply regret that this has caused further harm to you in an already distressing situation.

We know that the Church of England has seriously failed over many years at many levels in relation to safeguarding, and we are so sorry that yesterday’s speech was the antithesis of all that we are now trying to work towards in terms of culture change and redress with all of you.

As lead bishops for safeguarding in the Church of England, we apologize to you.

We will continue to do all we can to change the culture of the Church, so that abuse is exposed and prevented, those in authority are held to account, and the searching light of truth is allowed to shine into every corner of our lives.

If you are or are in contact with someone affected by this letter, please call the Safe Spaces helpline on 0300 303 1056 or visit this webpage where other support services are listed.

Joanne Grenfell, Julie Conalty, Robert Springett

Lead bishops for safeguarding 

Following Archbishop Justin's apology, Bishop Joanne said: “I welcome that Archbishop Justin has apologised for the hurt that his speech in the House of Lords caused.”

Source: Child Safeguarding Review Panel published on the 12 December 2024 by Jill Powell

The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel is calling on the government to ensure that children at risk of being harmed, both inside and outside their families, are at the heart of its strategies to break down barriers to opportunity. This comes as the Panel’s latest annual report reveals that 485 children were affected by serious child safeguarding incidents between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024. This is when a child dies or is seriously harmed, and abuse or neglect is known or suspected.

The recently announced reforms in the government’s paper ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’ are an important step in the right direction, with plans to implement the Panel’s recommendation for multi-agency child protection teams in every local authority. As the proposal for local multi-agency child protection teams shows, safeguarding children involves many different agencies from across policing, healthcare, education and others. Therefore, it is imperative that the mission-led approach now being promoted across government is carefully connected so different departments work together at a national level.

The Annual Report 2023 to 2024 highlighted 3 specific themes, which reinforce the importance of join-up between different government departments.

Safeguarding children with mental health needs

Over a fifth of children were recorded as having a mental health condition, either diagnosed or undiagnosed. The overwhelming majority of these children were aged 11 to 17, with the youngest being just 6. Distressingly, 92% of all children who died by suicide were recorded as having a mental health condition.

As part of the government’s ‘opportunities’ mission, it is vital that the Department for Health and Social Care, NHS England and other relevant bodies, including local commissioners, work with the Department for Education to ensure there is sufficient and appropriate mental health support available for vulnerable children.

Safeguarding pre-school children with parents with mental health needs

Over half of incidents involving the death or serious harm of a child aged one to 5 involved a parent or relevant adult with a mental health condition. Reviews highlighted that parental mental health was often overlooked as a potential risk factor when considering parents’ capacity to care for their children.

As the new Mental Health Bill progresses through Parliament, the Panel is calling for greater measures for supporting effective partnership working between adult mental health services and children’s services.

Safeguarding children from risks outside the family home

Almost a quarter of serious incidents featured harm perpetrated by adults and peers who were not members of the child’s own family. This includes gang violence, child sexual abuse and child criminal exploitation.

As part of the government’s ‘safer streets’ mission and its commitment to reduce violence against women and girls, there must be joint working between the Home Office and other relevant departments to ensure vulnerable children are not forgotten.

Source: Action Fraud published on this website Tuesday 10 December 2024 by Jill Powell

People celebrating this festive season are being encouraged to have a #FraudFreeXmas and stay alert to fraudsters taking advantage of the time of year, as Action Fraud reveal the 12 frauds of Christmas.

Make sure you have a #FraudFreeXmas: Action Fraud reveal 12 fraud types to look out for this Christmas