Systemic Failure in the death of Sara Sharif

TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains details of horrific child abuse which may cause distress. We recommend you do not read this if you are vulnerable.

Sara Sharif was a 10-year-old child who had been subjected to years of horrific physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her father and stepmother. She died on the 8th of August 2023, her father admitted to beating her to death.

Professionals who examined her body found she had about 100 injuries

including a traumatic brain injury, multiple broken bones, extensive bruising and scarring. There was also evidence of burns, including one on Sara’s buttocks which had been intentionally inflicted using a domestic iron, and human bite marks.

Many of the injuries that Sara suffered had been inflicted using implements, including a cricket bat, a vacuum, and a metal pole.

There was also evidence that Sara had been restrained and her head covered with homemade hoods made from parcel tape and plastic bags while some of the injuries were inflicted.¹

Sara’s family had a long and traumatic history. The family had been in family court multiple times, there were concerns about care of Sara’s siblings by both parents and her father had a history of alleged domestic abuse with multiple partners.

Sara herself had been placed in care twice and was returned to her family while one of her older siblings remained in care. Sara’s parents separated in 2015 amid allegations of Domestic Abuse and Sara remained in her mother’s care while father had supervised contact. In 2019 Sara’s father explained that “Sara said her mother had tried to drown her and burn her with a lighter. She also said her mother had slapped her, pinched her, and pulled her hair. Sharif recorded some of the allegations in a video.” ² Sara’s mother admitted smacking Sara but, not hard enough to leave a bruise or mark.

The public do not have access to all the records that were available to family court professionals, we only have what is reported in the news. Those reports show signs of several key issues many going through family court will recognise:

Multiple changes of professionals at different stages
- Children who are involved in family courts and care find themselves assessed and monitored by multiple changing professionals. It’s not unusual to go through multiple different social workers or judges and this creates risk in continuity of care. Sara experienced multiple social workers over time, however, there was some continuity with the same judge being involved since 2013².
Inexperienced court professionals
- Family courts and local authorities have a high churn in staff either as staff enter and leave the profession or take time off sick due to overwork and stress. The last social worker involved in assessing the family had little experience³.
- Professionals in family court have no training in psychological abuse, psychological control, family systems or personality disorders. Their training on attachment and trauma is light at best.
- The good work earlier social workers had done to identify abuse and protect the children from their father had been undone by the recommendation of an inexperienced colleague. It should not be underestimated the amount of responsibility and pressure that would have been on that relatively new social worker either.
Inability of court professionals to analyse a timeline of behaviour
- Through the court process parents and family members describe/document a timeline of behaviours they have experienced. Those who are diligent offer evidence of the events. In this case the social worker and judge involved appear to have failed to establish a timeline of events or the ability to draw out patterns of pathological behaviour in father’s case.
Over reliance on the child’s voice
- It’s important to listen to a child’s voice, sometimes you can get insightful information from what they say about what has happened, how they feel, what they want and need. This was the case when Sara’s siblings reported abuse previously and this was backed up by physical signs.
- However, when you’re dealing with a parent who is skilled in psychological control and keeping up apperances, what a child says, what is reality and what is in that child’s best interests are very different things.
- Some family court professionals with little experience and knowledge of psychological abuse and activists in particular are very concerned with hearing the child’s voice to the point that other evidence (cognitive information) for decision making is ignored. In Sara’s case they listened to her voice about alleged abuse at the hands of her mother, who admitted smacking her child on the hand/bottom not hard enough to leave a mark. Yet they completely omitted the long history of serious abuse on the father’s part and gave Sara back to him without any assessment to determine if the interventions they had put in place previously had actually worked to change his personality. They believed Sara when she said “I like living with Ammi and Daddy because I am safe and they don’t hit me,”⁴
Poor assessment of the family
- Right to Love hasn’t seen any reports of an assessment of the family by a qualified, skilled, experienced psychologist.
- Clinical Psychologists with the right background in attachment, personality disorders, trauma and family systems can assess parents to determine if they are good-enough or pose a threat. They can identify a treatment plan tailored to the individuals in the family and determine capacity to change in order to improve outcomes for the child. Dr Craig Childress maintains if you are in family court and a child is rejecting a parent you have significant pathology in the family that requires proper diagnostic assessment⁵. They provide vital information for judges in decision making.
- As explained in the article on attachment strategies certain tests can determine if a parent has developed a maladaptive attachment strategy which indicates the level of risk they may pose to their child. In the BBC report entitled “Behind Sara’s smile was a life of violence and torture”² lies another sign that Dr Patricia Crittenden has warned of, children who are most at risk of being killed often display, a false positive affect. To outsiders or in photographs they appear happy, despite extreme torture⁶.
- In this case, no consideration was made as to if psychological control was employed on Sara when allegations were made against mother. They just accepted dad/child’s voice that she had been severely abusive.
Wrong Interventions put in place
- If there is no assessment by qualified, skilled and experienced professionals who can propose a treatment plan it is highly unlikely the right interventions were put in place and that appropriate support was provided to Sara’s parents to help them overcome their own trauma’s to become better parents.
- Father went on a Domestic Abuse course for perpetrators but this did nothing to change his fundamental personality.
Outcomes of interventions were not monitored well
- Decisions in private law family courts are often made, put into effect and little if any monitoring is put in place to determine the effectiveness of decisions. There is usually more monitoring in place when children are placed into care, however, if the wrong interventions have been applied it is likely that monitoring will not identify warning signs. In addition, if the professionals supporting the family lack experience/skill/qualification any warning signs might be missed.
Cases referred to social services are closed quickly
- Family courts, schools and family members report concerns to social services and often hear nothing back, or find that investigations are closed within days, often just as a result of speaking to the alleged abuser. Sara’s school reported an injury they were worried about. Despite knowing the family history, the local authority closed the investigation in 6 days².
Bystanders do nothing or make things worse
- Neighbours, members of the community, family members, friends often know the abuse is going on but they either don’t register it as abuse or don’t want to get involved. Worse they may not trust social services to act on the information so don’t bother to report it. Sara’s neighbours reported hearing banging and hysterical screaming, describing the family as a “nightmare” but didn’t report the abuse. Her uncle knew the abuse was happening and didn’t report it either.

Urfan Sharif was sentenced to a minimum term of 40 years for killing and abusing Sara, Beinash Batool got a minimum term of 33 years. Sara’s uncle got 16 years for his part in concealing the abuse.¹

The public has no idea that family courts don’t assess allegations properly or monitor their interventions well. This case is one of 10’s of thousands that go through the same process every year and as a result there is risk in every case. Cases going through Family Court are harming family members, initially through the stress of the process, then through the harm of inappropriate interventions. Over time the bodies of family members will respond to the toxins associated with trauma and stress or as they use unhealthy coping mechanisms like food, drink and drugs. In worst cases children and ex partners who are not protected from pathogenic parents will suffer extreme abuse or lose their lives⁷.

This case, not the first of its kind, highlights many of the problems with the family court and the care process. A complete systemic failure that led to the death of Sara Sharif. To divert attention from these systematic failings, some policy makers and activists are calling for tougher laws on smacking, but this will make little difference in stopping the type of abuse that Sara went through because it does nothing to change the behaviour of a parent with a severely maladaptive attachment strategy. The children of the UK deserve better and only complete reform and monitoring of the family court process to assesses families properly before a decision as important as with whom a child spends time with is made, is acceptable. If this case doesn’t bring that change, it is not clear what will.

In future articles, we will look at the alternatives to family court.

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