Dear Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England,
We write in response to your statement regarding the convictions of Urfan Sharif and Beinash Batool for the murder of Sara Sharif. Thank you for your articulate remarks and the attention you have given to Sara’s case, and we welcome your proposed actions for preventing such failures in the future. However, we are concerned that the official response from authorities has failed to acknowledge the role that the family court played in the safeguarding failures. We believe that without intensive public scrutiny of the family court decision-making that led to her being placed in the care of Urfan Sharif and Beinash Batool, such devastating cases may happen again in the future.
A single judge oversaw two care proceeding cases and one private law family case concerning Sara’s welfare and residence. They eventually ordered that Sara should officially reside with her father and stepmother in October 2019 following a private law application. This final hearing did not involve any assessment of serious domestic abuse reported against Urfan Sharif, which indicated he was a high risk of harm and that Beinash Batool could never be a protective factor whilst living with a potential high risk domestic abuse perpetrator. It is now known that five months after being placed with Urfan Sharif, Beinash Batool disclosed to a relative that Urfan Sharif was beating Sara. The private law hearing, and previous hearings within the care proceedings, also failed to assess the evidence against her biological mother, which led to her being removed from her mother’s care. It does not seem that any fact-finding was ever undertaken on the allegations against Sara’s mother.
We empathise with the sentiment expressed in your statement that long public reviews are not of immediate benefit to children and that change is needed now. However, we believe that the failings are a matter of such significant public interest that a public inquiry is warranted. This is necessary because family court judiciary do not have to fully engage with independent child safeguarding reviews. Without the transparency and comprehensive scope of a public inquiry, we fear the full facts surrounding how Sara was failed may never come to light, and meaningful reform will be hindered. We are concerned that the links between domestic abuse and child abuse, which are cogently evidenced by research, do not appear to have been made in this case.
We welcome your powerful statement that parents should not be able to hide behind our legal system to justify unimaginable cruelty against children. We agree entirely and are concerned that her murderers hid behind the decisions of our family law system.
We urge you to use your influential position to raise questions about the family court decision-making in this case and to call for a public inquiry. Inquiries into child deaths such as Victoria Climbie and Peter Connelly led to important legislative and practice changes but there have been no investigations into the role of the family courts in such cases. Sixteen years ago 16-month-old Talha Ikram died at the hands of his father and stepmother after being placed with them by a family court judge, with the agreement of Children’s Services. No public inquiry was held, and therefore, no lessons were learnt from this avoidable child death (see https://www.casemine.com/judgement/uk/5b46f1ed2c94e0775e7ee3f3). We believe that the family court judiciary would welcome an inquiry to assist them in safe decision-making.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Adrienne Barnett and Dr Charlotte Proudman
Directors of Right to Equality
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