The father of Sara Sharif will not serve a whole-life order for the murder of the 10-year-old after the court of appeal rejected a bid to increase his 40-year sentence.
Urfan Sharif, 43, was convicted alongside his wife Beinash Batool, 30, of murdering Sara at the family home in Woking, Surrey, in August 2023.
In a televised sentencing at the Old Bailey in December, Mr Justice Cavanagh said Sara’s death “was the culmination of years of neglect, frequent assaults and what can only be described as torture”, mainly at the hands of Sharif.
He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 40 years, while Batool was ordered to serve at least 33 years. Sara’s paternal uncle, Faisal Malik, was jailed for 16 years for causing or allowing her death.
On Thursday, the solicitor general, asked the court of appeal to increase Sharif’s sentence for being “unduly lenient”, arguing that the duration, extent and brutality of the abuse meted out on Sara warranted a whole-life order. At the same hearing, Sharif, Batool and Malik brought bids to reduce their sentences.
In a decision on Thursday afternoon, the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, sitting with Mr Justice Soole and Mr Justice Goose, concluded that Sharif would not be given a whole-life order, saying it was “a sentence of last resort for cases of the most extreme gravity”.
She said: “The court should give very great weight to the assessment of the trial judge. He was in the very best position to make the overall assessment that he did. In the circumstances, we conclude that the sentence was not unduly lenient.”
The judges also rejected a bid by all three defendants to challenge their sentences, saying: “We refuse leave to Sharif, Batool and Malik to appeal against their sentence.”
Earlier in the hearing, Tom Little KC, for the solicitor general, argued Sara’s murder was a rare case of such “exceptionally high seriousness” that it warranted a whole-life order for Sharif.
He told the court: “In short we say when one considered the duration, extent and nature of the offending in this case does cross that very high threshold of being such a rare case of which a whole-life order would be appropriate and indeed, I have to submit, the only appropriate sentence.”
Naeem Mian KC, for Sharif, argued a whole-life order would not be appropriate, saying: “This is not one of those exceptional cases.”
He added: “We can all agree that this was a tragic case. We can agree that what Sara was subjected to was horrendous. Regrettably, it is the case that cases of this nature are not unique.”
