In the quiet suburb of Woking, Surrey, the tragic death of 10-year-old Sara Sharif continues to haunt both the local community and the wider United Kingdom. The recent publication of a damning child safeguarding review has laid bare a series of catastrophic failings by authorities, professionals, and even neighbors, all of which ultimately allowed years of abuse to go unchecked and resulted in Sara's brutal murder by her father and stepmother in August 2023.
According to the BBC, the review, released on November 13, 2025, found that Surrey County Council staff attempted a welfare check on Sara just one day before her death. In a devastating twist, they went to the wrong address and, upon realizing the error, chose not to try again until the following month. By then, it was too late. Sara had already been killed by her father, Urfan Sharif, and stepmother, Beinash Batool, after enduring two years of relentless abuse.
What makes this case especially harrowing is the sheer number of missed opportunities to intervene. Bruising was first noticed on Sara as early as June 2022. In March 2023, staff at St Mary's Primary School in West Byfleet spotted three bruises on her face, one the size of a golf ball, and reported their concerns to Surrey Children's Services. Instead of decisive action, the response was lackluster: the case was categorized as "amber," meaning it required action within 24 hours, but no checks were made with Surrey Police—who were already aware of Sharif's history of domestic abuse—and the school was not consulted further.
The review, as reported by The Times and BBC, found that professionals were reluctant to question why Sara, a child of Pakistani and Polish heritage, began wearing a hijab at age eight. This sudden change was not grounded in religious practice—no one else in her family or peer group wore one—but was instead a desperate attempt to conceal bruises and injuries on her face and head. A newly qualified occupational therapist admitted to being hesitant to raise the issue, fearing it might cause offence. Neighbors, too, harbored suspicions about Sara's wellbeing but refrained from reporting their concerns, worried about being branded as racist, especially on social media.
The review concluded bluntly that "race was a bar to reporting possible child abuse" and that "professionals never explored how [her Pakistani heritage] impacted on Sara." This fear of being accused of racism, the report stated, must be overcome if children like Sara are to be protected. The reluctance to ask difficult questions, particularly when cultural or religious sensitivities are involved, is not unique to this case. As highlighted by The Times, a 2022 report found that doctors in the UK were also overlooking suspected cases of domestic abuse in "Asian" households for similar reasons.
By the time of her death, Sara's suffering was almost unimaginable. The post-mortem revealed dozens of injuries, including human bite marks, burns from an iron, scalding from hot water, and a back that had been broken ten times. The review described her father and stepmother as "a lethal combination" and concluded, "with hindsight, it is clear that they should never have been trusted with the care of Sara." Despite this, a British family court had awarded Sharif custody, even with his known history of violence and arrests for abusing previous partners and another child. During court proceedings, Batool claimed Sara was possessed by a "jinn," a demon from Arab folklore—a claim that was ultimately dismissed, but which underscores the bizarre and tragic circumstances of the girl's final years.
Sara was eventually removed from school to be home-schooled, effectively disappearing from the oversight of teachers and child welfare professionals. The school's attempt to keep her safe by providing her new address to the council was undermined by a system that failed to update records. When the home education team set out to visit her on August 7, 2023, they went to her old address. Back at the office, they realized the mistake but decided to wait until September to try again. The next day, Sara was dead.
The review, commissioned by the Surrey Safeguarding Children Partnership—a coalition of police, health organizations, and the council's children's services—was unsparing in its assessment. "The system failed to keep her safe," it stated. "There were clearly several points in Sara's life, in particular during the last few months, where different actions could and should have been taken." The authors, former senior social worker Jane Wonnacott and ex-homicide detective Dr. Russell Wate, expressed surprise at the lack of communication between children's services and the police, calling it a missed opportunity to identify the ongoing abuse.
After Sara's murder, her father fled to Pakistan, but justice eventually caught up with him. In December 2024, Sharif was sentenced at the Old Bailey to a minimum of 40 years in prison, while Batool received a minimum of 33 years. Sara's uncle, Faisal Malik, was also convicted for causing or allowing her death and received a 16-year sentence. Sara's body was laid to rest in Poland, her mother's native country, a somber reminder of the cross-cultural complexities that surrounded her short life.
The fallout from the case has been swift and severe. Surrey County Council issued a public apology and pledged to implement every recommendation from the review in full. Chief executive Terence Herbert acknowledged that children's services in Surrey had improved in recent years but admitted, "We are absolutely determined to keep making improvements that can help keep children safe." Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson called the case "an appalling tragedy," emphasizing that the review "rightly highlights the glaring failures and missed opportunities across all agencies." Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children's Commissioner, added, "Change is urgent—we are now more than two years on from Sara's preventable murder and children are still dying."
Woking MP Will Forster has demanded that the council's children's services be placed into special measures and that senior officers be held accountable for the systemic failures. Meanwhile, Assistant Chief Constable Tanya Jones of Surrey Police described Sara's case as "one of the most shocking and tragic" the force had ever investigated. "No child should ever have to suffer what Sara did at the hands of those who should have shown her only love," she said, pledging to work with partners to enact the review's recommendations.
As the UK grapples with the uncomfortable lessons from Sara Sharif's death, the hope is that her legacy will drive urgent reform. The review's authors called for a "much more coherent home-schooling system, which provides adequate safeguards for all children." But the real challenge may lie in changing the culture of fear—fear of causing offence, fear of being accused of racism—that so often stands in the way of protecting society's most vulnerable. For Sara, change comes too late. For others, it cannot come soon enough.
