LONDON – The father of Sara Sharif, a 10-year-old girl who was found dead in her home in Britain, denied responsibility for his daughter’s death when he gave evidence at her murder trial on Tuesday.

Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking, a town southwest of London, after what prosecutors say was a campaign of “serious and repeated violence.”

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones told jurors at the start of the trial that Sara had suffered a litany of injuries, including burns and bite marks.

Her father Urfan Sharif, 42, his wife and Sara Sharif’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and the girl’s uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are on trial at London’s Old Bailey court on charges of his murder.

The trio is accused of causing or allowing the death of a child. All three deny the charges against them and blame each other for his death, prosecutors said.

Emlyn Jones told jurors earlier this month that Urfan Sharif told police: “I didn’t mean to kill her, but I hit her too hard.”

Sharif took the witness stand on Tuesday and was asked by his lawyer Naeem Mian if he was responsible for Sara’s death. He replied: “No.”

She became emotional when Mian asked her to describe what Sara was like, saying that she was “beautiful, an angel” and that her favorite color was pink.

Sharif agreed to slap Sara on “some occasions” to discipline her, but denied hitting her on a regular or sustained basis.

Mian had told the jury that Sharif had been wrongly portrayed as a “villain”, rather than Batool, for slapping Sara.

Batool’s case, prosecutors have previously said, is that Urfan Sharif was a “violent disciplinarian” and that he was afraid of him.

The trial is expected to last until December. REUTERS