Sara Sharif

joannapiano

Apparently she hadn’t been to school in 4 months. Why was this not followed up? According to the news report tonight, she had 5 siblings living within the house.

She was removed for home schooling. Her old s hook cannot follow up on that. There are no effective systems for monitoring home schooled kids!

FriedGreenTomatoes2

A 10-year-old girl subjected to “brutal abuse” by her father and step-mother before being found dead was forced to wear a hijab to school to hide her bruises, a court has heard.

This is common to all abusers of whatever culture - forcing the victim to conceal and lie, cover up, with threats.

The system regarding school attendance is broken. I only recently retired from working with schools who had only one attendance office for hundreds of children.

There are various reasons why this child was not monitored by the school:

One, the cuts to education and local authorities means that the staffing levels for attendance officers are too low.
Ditto for social workers.

Two, post covid attendance has dropped dramatically, also more parents take their children on holiday in term time and this is becoming far more normalised, where before it was unusual. So often it takes a few weeks before the monitoring system kicks in.

Three- the growing trend in home schooling needs legislation. There is no monitoring other than an annual tick box exercise. I worked in a large authority where there was ONE person responsible for monitoring home schooled children. How could she do that job on her own?

Cases like this, sadly, will always occur but as usual there will be a case review and recommendations made which will involve more over-worked staff ticking boxes.

We are all responsible for reporting vulnerable children, but social workers are too thin on the ground to do their jobs properly.

All due to austerity cuts I'm afraid. this child was seriously let down, like so many others we don't get to hear about until it's too late.

A 10-year-old girl subjected to “brutal abuse” by her father and step-mother before being found dead was forced to wear a hijab to school to hide her bruises, a court has heard.

Today's evidence is absolutely horrific. That poor child, how she must have suffered. Those responsible - all of them - should never see the light of day again.

Ive just accidentally seen today's headlines regarding this case. I wish I hadn't. I would advise you to avoid it.

Correction - those who witness abuse must report this immediately to social services or the police.

Sarnia

Another example of cultural beliefs. According to her father she was beaten regularly because she misbehaved. Men from these backgrounds do not see their womenfolk as equal or value them at all. We see it time and again in honour killings. The family standing and respect in their own community is paramount and anyone who is a threat to that must be dealt with. Although a young girl he may have thought she was going to cause him problems in the future so was trying to beat it out of her and as he says he went too far. Girls and women from these cultures and entrenched beliefs have a long and arduous road ahead of them to ever reach a point of equality and respect from their men. I hope they lock the 3 of them up and throw away the key.

I really don’t think this is as much of a contributor as you think or there would be far fewer babies and children killed horrifically by white English people. Tbh it crosses all cultures and the only solution is for those who witness abuse must do so immediately to social services or the police.
Too many feel awkward about doing this.

The school saw bruises. Neighbours heard screaming. Didn't anyone alert the authorities?

I think I read a while back her mother is Polish, I don't know the reason why the father got custody. Her mother understandably is devastated.

In some cultures, a pretty little daughter is a financial asset. She was worth money to this dreadful father. The punishments were probably to break her will and make her submissive.

I maybe wrong, but I thought when we first heard of this case some months ago, that it was said that Sara’s mother is English and Sara was born from her mother and father having an affair, but that they were never married. I wonder why Sara ended up in her father’s care, and not the care of her mother, as tends to be more usual. Why did a judge make this disastrous decision that has sadly cost Sara her life. The judge must have had a reason, but it would be useful to know. I seem to remember the mother saying she used to see Sara, but the father stopped the visits.
It’s all puzzling, but mostly heartbreaking.

I'd like to emphasis that what he did was not acceptable when he got to Pakistan.

I took every chance news wise to read up on what happened there.

The UK authorities don't have extradition treaties with Pakistan, but the Pakistan police were involved and it was made public.

The family had all the other children removed by the child welfare authorities and parents were shunned in their own community - they said they dare not leave their house. The family were forced to return to the UK to face justice.

I do accept there are cultural differences at play sometimes (the father had this idea of "lawful" in his head, he yet dobbed himself in from the start).

However, in cases like this the perpetrators often have some horribly twisted self-justifying excuse along the lines of "punishment" and blame the child, whatever the background.

Definitely the most serious of sentences possible.

I also wonder about the involvement of the Family Courts in this horror story who gave custody of her to the Father....normally only done after reports from Cafcass.

No doubt another inquiry and "lessons learned", until the next poor child is killed

Another example of cultural beliefs. According to her father she was beaten regularly because she misbehaved. Men from these backgrounds do not see their womenfolk as equal or value them at all. We see it time and again in honour killings. The family standing and respect in their own community is paramount and anyone who is a threat to that must be dealt with. Although a young girl he may have thought she was going to cause him problems in the future so was trying to beat it out of her and as he says he went too far. Girls and women from these cultures and entrenched beliefs have a long and arduous road ahead of them to ever reach a point of equality and respect from their men. I hope they lock the 3 of them up and throw away the key.

She had been withdrawn from school because she was being 'home-schooled.'
Schooled in what?
Nothing the authorities can do to prevent that. Generally about one visit, pre-announced, a term to check on standards.

It is a truly horrific case this poor little child must have had a terrible life and you can bet these weren’t the first or only attacks Was she the eldest ? She may have been held accountable for the other children’s behaviour too I have once seen that happen when the eldest was punished for the others younger siblings behaviour.
Jail is far too good for them but can we even get them back from Pakistan? I hope if they are brought back they get beaten up every day of their lives by other prisoners. I hope they live in fear for the rest of their days They need to suffer every minute of every day Prison is too good for them
Its inconceivable

There is no other word for this than appalling. It must be brought home that behaviour that may be acceptable in other countries is certainly not acceptable here. The school should have followed up the child’s absence and years ago this would have been chased up by the Education Welfare Officer appointed to the school by the local Education dept. Over the last 10 years or so I believe that schools have to fund their own Attendance Officer who seems often to be a member of the staff doing this on an Ad Hoc basis.It is quite possible then that her absence was not followed up or excused by assuming the family had gone to visit family abroad. Also when children are dressed in so called modest dress with arms and legs covered and do not changed for PE marks on their body can’t be noticed. They all three adults deserve life sentences meaning they stay in prison until they die. Even that is too good for them.

Utterly heartbreaking. Life without parole for all 3 of them.

Legal punishment ? Is anyone allowed to hit a child legally? Not legal here and I’m hoping not legal in the UK, either. I looked this child’s story up and I felt sick to my stomach. Absolutely shocking and I hope these people are sent to jail for a long,long time.

That beautiful delicate little girl. There are monsters living amongst us.

This beautiful child suffered a catalogue of terrible injuries and the three adults whose care she was in have all denied her murder. I wonder how they think she sustained those horrible injuries if they say it was not them?
She was not attending school for four months. Why not? Was there some kind of worry because this was a Pakistani family?
All children should be protected, whatever their racial heritage.
Poor little angel. I cannot imagine her suffering.

The photograph of her dressed up in adult clothes.
The horrifying phrase the father used in his phone call from Pakistan saying 'he had legally punished her' then went too far and lost it, in what was described as a brutal and sustained attack over several weeks.

What is' legal punishment'? Is this a widely held belief?

There are safeguarding procedures in place in schools which operate well until reported to the police, who are stalled by claims of racism when they try to investigate.

Such a sad story, poor little girl that all she was a little girl.
I remember speaking to a teacher who was teaching at a intercity girls school.
They had a lot of girls from other cultures as they didn't have boys around.
This teacher was telling us that it's not unknown especially during the summer holidays to have about 2 girls or more never to return, these girls where aged 12 - 16 years, parents had married them off, apparently not much you can do.
The missing girls close friends all knew these girls had gone back to India /Pakistan etc and would never come back as they had been married off.

I rarely post but reading about this earlier compels me to.

I heard this poor child had bite marks on her arms and thigh. Both men’s teeth have been examined and they have been exonerated over the bites. The stepmother refused to have her teeth examined! I hope the jury does the right thing.

RIP Sara.