Sara Sharif’s father tearfully told a court he felt his “world crushed” as he held her lifeless body in his arms.

Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, told jurors he found the 10-year-old collapsed after his wife Beinash Batool called him home from work on the evening of August 8 last year.

When asked to describe his emotional state as he hugged and kissed his daughter, Sharif told jurors: “I was numb. My world crashed, the whole world fell on top of me.

Sharif is on trial at the Old Bailey, accused of murdering Sara, along with her mother-in-law Batool, 30, and her uncle Faisal Malik, 29.

Giving evidence on Friday, Sharif said Sara was “limp” on Batool’s lap in a bedroom by the time he returned to the family home in Woking, Surrey.

His wife had claimed Sara was “dramatic” and “pretending” not to get up after falling down the stairs while being “silly” with another child, the court was told.

Sharif said: “I raised her left arm but she didn’t want to get up. His arm was limp. I dropped it and it fell.

“I patted her face, asked Sara to get up, but she didn’t get up so I took Sara from Batool’s lap and patted her again.

“She opened her eyes, said she was thirsty, she needed water and she was sleepy.

“I screamed for water. She (Batool) gave me water but she (Sara) didn’t drink. She didn’t wake up, she was sleeping.

Sharif continued: “I screamed for (an) ambulance because I couldn’t hear breathing. I checked for a pulse and there was none.

“I started giving him CPR. I was numb, like I am now. I was shocked.

He continued to do chest compressions while Batool stood by his side and shouted at him in Urdu: “Wake her up, wake her up, she can’t die,” they told jurors.

After about 10 minutes he stopped and Batool hugged him and said: “Leave her, Sara is dead,” the court heard.

Sharif said he asked Batool where the ambulance was, but she told him: “It’s no use.” It’s not necessary because she’s dead.

He told jurors he did not call emergency services himself because Batool “snatched” the phone from him and told him he had to protect the family.

“I wasn’t myself. I was everywhere. When I left about an hour ago, I hugged her, kissed her, I didn’t know what happened.

“I got it back. I just hugged her and kissed her. I couldn’t believe she was gone. I didn’t accept. I still can’t accept that my daughter is gone.

“I just hugged her, that’s all. I just asked him: “Wake up, just once.”

“I was in shock, numb like I was sitting here. I didn’t understand what had happened.

Sharif closed Sara’s eyes with his hands, Batool “shed a few tears”, then Malik went upstairs and “burst into tears” after failing to find her pulse, the court heard.

The defendant claimed the original plan was for Batool to go to his relatives in Luton so he could call the police and say Sara had died in his care.

Batool made 30 calls to his family members, but they didn’t help him because they were “scared,” he said.

Sharif said he carried Sara to the bathroom to clean her body, but was physically stopped by Batool who told him: “Are you stupid, leave her.”

The accused said he was “shocked” to see a red mark on Sara before Batool explained that the other child had beaten and stomped on her.

Sharif said he wrote a letter confessing to killing his daughter and left it next to Sara’s body so he could “take responsibility.”

But it was Batool who asked him to say in the note that he had “lost it,” he said.

Later that night, flights were booked for the family to travel to Pakistan the next day.

Sharif said it was “selfish and inhumane” to leave his daughter alone “like an orphan”.

Jurors heard how police found Sara’s body after Sharif called from Islamabad on August 10.

An autopsy found she suffered dozens of injuries, including burns from an iron, human bite marks and signs of restraint.

The defendants were arrested when they returned to the UK on September 13 last year.

At that point, Sharif told jurors he intended to take responsibility again, but he changed his mind after being informed of the extent of Sara’s injuries.

He said: “I couldn’t believe it. I was crying… there was so much happening right under my nose that I didn’t know.

“I didn’t. (The other child) wasn’t capable of doing that.

Defense lawyer Naeem Mian KC asked: “Who do you think did this then? »

Sharif replied: “There is only one person left – Beinash. »

Concluding his questions, Mr. Mian said: “This will be asked of you, Mr. Sharif, you are manipulative, you are controlling, you, Mr. Sharif, were coercing Batool, you, Mr. Sharif, are the person who would beat the shit out of Sara, not (the child), not Batool, but you.

“You, Mr. Sharif, would beat Sara with a cricket bat, you would beat her with a white pole…. and finally that it is you who are responsible for the death of your daughter.

Sharif denied it, saying: “Everything that happened happened when I was not at home. »

Batool sobbed in the dock throughout Sharif’s testimony Friday and Malik wiped his eyes and bowed his head.

The defendants, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, deny murder and causing or permitting the death of a child between December 16, 2022 and August 9, 2023.

The trial was adjourned until 2 p.m. Monday.