Sara Sharif’s “evil and psychopathic” stepmother was caught red-handed after tying up the “terrified” 10-year-old boy with duct tape in her home, a court heard.

Beinash Batool, 30, Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, 42, and her uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are on trial at the Old Bailey accused of her murder following a campaign of abuse.

Jurors have heard that Sara suffered dozens of injuries, including iron burns, human bite marks and signs of restraint, before dying at her home in Woking, Surrey, last August.

Giving evidence on Thursday, Sharif cried as he blamed his wife sitting in the dock and said: “I never knew I was living with evil and psychopath.”

On one occasion, he said he came home to find Sara with her arms tied behind her back with duct tape in the TV room.

Batool was present and seemed “shocked” to see him, Sharif said: “I screamed. I was angry, I was upset.

“She, Sara, was terrified. I was scared. She didn’t say much. I hugged her, kissed her and then Beinash and I went to the kitchen.

“He apologized and promised me he wouldn’t do it again. And even after those days I was so stupid that I believed him.”

He said he freed his daughter with a knife from the kitchen.

Defense lawyer Naeem Mian KC asked why he did not report him and said: “His daughter, the girl he has fought for custody over, at home has her arms tied behind her back with duct tape.”

The defendant said he had been “an idiot” and should have called the police.

Mr. Mian said: “According to you, you caught her red-handed. “This is your daughter.”

Sharif said: “She (Batool) apologized. “I’ve been wrong for a long, long time.”

The jury was told Batool stayed at home with Sara while Sharif worked long hours as a taxi driver and cooked and cleaned for the family on weekends.

Sharif denied Batool’s repeated claims to his sister that he was “beating his daughter.”

He admitted that he slapped Sara “several times,” but only because Batool told him she was “playing.”

Referring to an alleged incident Batool told his sister, Mr Mian said: “You’ve had a long day, Batool has told you that Sara, in particular, has been playing.

“Wouldn’t you just say ‘I’ll fix it,’ go to her room, wake her up, and beat her up?

Sharif replied: “No sir. She always accused her of everything that happened.

“I slapped her only because I was forced to do so. “My daughter Sara was doing everything she could to make her life a living hell.”

He continued: “Beinash accused Sara all the time. I was blaming my daughter.

“I shouldn’t have believed him. “I never knew I was living with evil and psychopathy.”

Mr Mian said: “According to her, you are the psychopath, you are the one who gave Sara a cricket bat.”

Sharif denied this and said he had never hit her with a white stick, bit her or put a homemade hood over her head.

He told the jury: “The person who bit my daughter on the arm like she was an animal? I didn’t do it, Faisal didn’t do it… Who else was at home?

Mian reminded jurors that only Batool had refused to give him dental impressions to compare with the marks on Sara’s body.

Late last July, Sharif said he learned from Batool that Sara was wearing a diaper because “she couldn’t control her bladder.”

When he questioned his wife about it, she told him it was “normal” for girls to grow as their bodies changed, the court heard.

Sharif told the jury: “Sara wet herself a couple of times. Beinash told me we have to put a diaper on him, he is growing, he is going through that time of the month.”

Mr. Mian said, “Are you making this up because you, the psychopath, burned Sara? You burned her so much that she couldn’t sit up. With an iron.

“Did you burn yourself, did you mark Sara on the butt?”

Sharif replied: “No sir.”

He denied seeing any bruises on her body, only a “scratch on her nose,” as Sara wore a hijab, long sleeves and tights, even when she was at home.

He told the jury he never saw her in pain or unable to move, and that the only other injury was blisters on her feet, which were treated with antiseptic cream.

On the day of her death, Sara washed clothes but never ironed because she was “too young” and it was “dangerous,” she said.

That night, Sharif was working when he received a call from Batool telling him to “come home”, the court heard.

He responded that he was “driving, not flying” and would be back in 15 to 20 minutes.

Sharif denied being “burning with anger to get home” and sort out the problem with Sara, and even stopped at a co-op to buy cigarettes or vapes along the way.

Jurors heard that at 8.38pm, a child in the home sent an “urgent” text message to a friend to say Sara had “just passed away”.

The following day, the accused took a flight to Pakistan and were arrested on September 13 upon their return to the United Kingdom.

The defendants, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, denied murdering and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16, 2022 and August 9, 2023.