Sara Sharif: Children’s Commissioner responds to sentencing

The statement continues:

"In sentencing her killers, Mr Justice Cavanagh was clear that removing Sara from the protection of her school, under the guise of ‘home education’ is evidence of a system too easily manipulated by people with terrible intentions. Despite there having been evidence of violence at home since birth, Sara was not under any intervention from social care when she died. The Bill must therefore go further in protecting children like her, making it impossible for a child ever known to social care for abuse or neglect to be home schooled.

We need bold reform, including by removing the outdated defence in assault law that permits ‘reasonable chastisement’ of children. This alone may have stopped short of preventing Sara’s death, but my deep concern – echoed by the judge – is that her father believed he was entitled to brutally punish her.

We must never again hear the words “I legally punished my child and she died”. I will be working to make sure everyone understands the clear evidence for this change in law: removing this defence does not criminalise good parents but will keep children – and in particular girls – safe from violence.

My thoughts remain with Sara’s loved ones and everyone affected by her loss – the list is long. We owe it to her memory, and to every vulnerable child, to ensure that when we say ‘never again’ we must, finally, mean it."