Sara Sharif was murdered after a series of failures by the safeguarding system that should have saved her life, a damning review has found.
The 10-year-old was found dead in her Woking family home in August 2023, after suffering ‘horrific abuse’ at the hands of her father Urfan Sharif and stepmother Beinash Batool.
Sara had been ‘a victim of domestic abuse from birth onwards’, the latest report found.
Her father’s cruelty had been overlooked and underestimated, it said, with even safeguarding authorities appearing to have been ‘groomed and manipulated’ by him.
Missed opportunities included a council worker being sent to the wrong house as the address had not been updated in the digital system – just two days before Sara died.
When her father emailed her school to say he intended to educate his daughter at home, he undoubtedly intended ‘to keep Sara hidden from view in the last weeks of her life’, the report concluded.
The review, which looked into the handling of Sara’s care by various different services including police, health, social care and education, found there were ‘many points at which different action could, and we suggest, should, have been taken’.
Sharif and Batool were found guilty of Sara’s murder last year, and both were jailed for life with minimum terms of 40 years and 33 years respectively in December.
Her uncle, Faisal Malik, was found guilty of causing or allowing her death and jailed for 16 years.
Will Forster, the Liberal Democrat MP for Woking, called for a full parliamentary investigation to take place into the failings.
He said: ‘It is now painfully clear that Sara’s murderers exploited loopholes in the home education system to conceal their abuse.
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‘Legislation is urgently needed to prevent this happening again.’
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the local child safeguarding practice review ‘highlights the glaring failures and missed opportunities across all agencies which led to Sara’s death’.
Terence Herbert, the chief executive of Surrey County Council, said the local authority was ‘deeply sorry for the findings in the report’.
He said: ‘We have already taken robust action to address those relating to Surrey County Council and that work will continue with every recommendation implemented in full.
‘We will also work with partners across the Surrey Safeguarding Children Partnership to ensure a joint action plan is implemented as quickly as possible.
‘In recent years children’s services in Surrey have gone from “inadequate” to “good”, and we are absolutely determined to keep making improvements that can help keep children safe.’
Downing Street said Sara’s death was ‘heartbreaking’ and had exposed ‘serious failings’.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘This is an appalling case. Sara Sharif had her whole life ahead of her and this review makes her case all the more heartbreaking by exposing these serious failings that contributed to her death.
‘We will and are acting to help ensure no child is left invisible to the services designed to protect them and we will, of course, consider this report closely and implement the recommendations fully.
‘The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is the most comprehensive child protection legislation in a generation. It includes a register of children who are not in school, a unique identification number for every child, in the same way as every adult has their own national insurance number.
‘It includes the removal of the automatic right for parents to educate children at home if their child is subject to a child protection investigation or under a child protection plan.
‘Alongside this, our £2 billion families first partnership is creating expert child protection teams to take decisive action where children face significant harm.’
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