Britain’s broken system failed Sara Sharif – functioning system would have removed monster father
Child betrayed
A FUNCTIONING system would never have allowed monstrous Urfan Sharif to remain here, let alone leaving him free to torture and beat his helpless daughter to death.
The Pakistani cab driver was a thief, a violent, controlling misogynist, a serial abuser of vulnerable women and children and known both to police and social services.
The sort of criminal who should long ago have been frogmarched aboard a plane back to Islamabad.
Instead he concocted a sham marriage to a Polish woman, knowing her country’s EU membership would underpin his right to remain in pre-Brexit Britain once his student visa expired.
Then, as years went by, social services — adding yet another horrific case to their already infamous dossier of lethal blunders — predictably failed again and again.
Despite being alerted to repeated suspicions of Sharif’s child abuse, little was ever done.
And, incredibly, it was on their recommendation that Sara, subject to a child protection order from birth, was somehow handed over to her rage-filled father after her parents split.
Surrey social workers still did nothing even when a teacher reported bruises on her face . . . injuries which non-religious Sharif had tried to hide by sending her to school in a hijab.
It is a testament to the little girl’s character that she remained so bubbly and engaging despite the systematic torture and savage beatings she was enduring at home from Sharif as her cruel stepmother Beinash Batool did nothing.
But we are sick of hearing the platitudes and excuses from social services departments every time another harrowing case of child abuse and murder slips through their net.
Sharif’s own barrister branded him a “scumbag” who “would be in the circles of hell for eternity”.
Who, then, will pay a price for leaving little Sara to die in the clutches of this evil creature and his cold, callous wife?
Grow steady
IT is absolutely right to unclog the planning system and get huge numbers of new homes built for young people.
Even if our vast immigration influx ceased overnight we would still have a massive deficit of properties compared with those needing them.
But the Government must use caution.
Yes, local councils may need to be forced to accept a big increase in developments.
And, true, some Green Belt land is far from idyllic countryside.
It can surely be built on as a last resort.
But Labour must not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
If ministers override Nimby locals and their self-interested councils and MPs, they must not do so lightly.
Plenty of rural Green Belt land IS beautiful, treasured and vital.
Once lost it’s gone for good.