An inexperienced social worker assessed Sara Sharif’s father as not posing a risk, despite being aware of a nearly 10-year history of alleged abuse.
At a private hearing at the family court in Guildford in 2019, Urfan Sharif, 43, and Beinash Batool, 30, Sara’s stepmother, won custody of the schoolgirl.
It has now emerged that the Surrey County Council social worker who gave the statement to the court had only been in the job for nine months.
The worker, who cannot be named for legal reasons, failed to provide any assessment of the injuries sustained by Sharif, although he described the details of the violence inflicted on him.
Family court documents were released to the press following a request by media organisations, including The Telegraph.
Sara, aged 10, was found dead at her home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10 last year after being tortured for months by Batool and Sharif.
Urfan Sharif (left) and Beinash Batool, who were both found guilty of murder – Surrey Police/PA
The pair were found guilty of his murder following an eight-week trial at the Old Bailey and are expected to be sentenced on Tuesday.
Sara’s grandfather, Faisal Malik, 29, who was living with the family at the time, was found not guilty of murder, but convicted of causing or allowing the child’s death.
During the family court in October 2019, Sara and her brother were already living with Batool and Sharif after they reported the abuse by Sara’s mother, Olga Domin, 38.
The couple had applied, with Ms. Domin’s permission, for Sara to live with them and their request was approved by the judge, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
The Telegraph newspaper, along with other media organizations, requested to name the judge in this case, but was prevented from doing so by another family court judge, Mr. Justice Williams.
Dame Vera Baird, former Victims’ Commissioner, said the move to ban journalists from naming the judge in the case was “appalling”.
Dame Vera Baird criticized the decision to ban the media from naming the judge – Rii Schroer/Rii Schroer.
In making a decision on Sara’s custody arrangements, the judge considered a report by an inexperienced social worker and ultimately accepted its recommendations.
A social worker said that Sara and her brother “seem to have been severely abused” at the hands of Olga Domin, 38.
They said Sara said she was “stabbed, beaten, electrocuted and dunked in a bathtub” by her mother.
The social worker added that it is likely that the children would be at risk of physical and emotional abuse if they returned to their mother’s care.
“However, I don’t care about the children who are left in the care of their father, as the children reported that they are happy and feel safe, and they are not tortured or abused by their father and Beinash,” she said. he concluded.
The report goes on to say that Sara “may be living in a happy place at home under the care of Urfan and Beinash”.
Batool and Sharif were said to be able to take care of children without “punishing” them.
Overall, the social worker concluded, the couple could provide Sara “security, stability, emotional warmth and leadership”.
They recommended that Sara stay with Batool and Sharif and only expect to see Ms Domin for two weeks.
It was said at the hearing by a member of Surrey’s social services team that “at the end of the story the aim would be for the children of Surrey County Council to have no further involvement”.
The chief justice at the court described the SCC’s report as “a very clear report” and “excellent work”, before leaving to take its advice.
Sara suffered more than 71 injuries when she was found, including fractures, burns and bite marks and multiple bruises.
There was evidence that the schoolboy had been repeatedly restrained with packing tape and beaten with irons and a cricket bat.
Surrey County Council said an independent inquiry into experts who met Sara’s family is underway.