Sara Sharif's father sobs in the dock as he admits beating 10-year-old daughter to death - but insists he did not mean to kill her

Sara Sharif 's father wept in the dock today as he admitted beating his daughter to death but denied murdering her.

Urfan Sharif, 42, admitted he had beaten the 10-year-old schoolgirl causing her death.

Caroline Carberry, KC, asked: 'Do you accept that your beating of her caused her death'. The defendant sobbed: 'Yes.'

But he denied murder saying: 'I was not intending to kill her, no.'

He added: 'She died because of me but I did not want to kill her. It was not my intention.'

Earlier in the day, Sharif told jurors he 'takes full responsibility' for Sara's death.

He made the admission under cross-examination as his wife Beinash Batool, 30, sobbed in the dock of the Old Bailey on Wednesday.

He confessed that he had battered the 10-year-old schoolgirl with a cricket bat and a metal pole.

He also accepted that he had beaten her in the days before her death, causing fractures all over her body.

Previously, Sharif had sought to blame Batool for killing his daughter but in a dramatic admission, told jurors: 'I accept every single thing.'

Caroline Carberry, KC, defending his wife asked: 'Did you beat her? Did you inflict injuries on her'

Speaking softly in the dock, he nodded, saying: 'Yes.'

He added: 'I take full responsibility.'

He denied biting or burning his daughter when asked to look at a folder detailing the injuries on her body.

'I can't do that. I can't look at it. I take full responsibility,' he said.

Ms Carberry said: 'Did you use the cricket bat to inflict these injuries.'

He said: 'Yes ma'am.'

She went on: 'Did you use a white metal pole to cause these marks.'

He answered: 'Yes ma'am.'

He said he took 'full responsibility' for breaking bones in her neck, but he did not know if he used a belt to cause the injury.

Ms Carberry later asked: 'Did you accept that you killed Sara by beating her.'

Sharif whispered: 'Yes.'

Ms Carberry asked: 'Do you accept that you had been beating Sara severely over a number of weeks.'

Sharif answered 'Yes'.

He admitted that he had beaten her around the face with a cricket bat, battering her repeatedly on a 'number of occasions.'

Crying, the father accepted that he had caused at least 25 fractures during assaults 'using a weapon'.

When asked what Sara had done to deserve such beatings, Sharif muttered: 'Nothing'.

He accepted that he had been angry after she started defecating in fear and vomiting.

Ms Carberry asked: 'Did you hit her intentionally to cause really serious harm to her.'

Sharif looked down, sobbing: 'Yes maam.'

Ms Carberry added: 'You have pleaded not guilty to the offence of murder. Would you like the charge to be put to you again?'

Sharif answered: 'Yeah.'

The trial was halted today after Sharif's barrister, Naeem Mian, KC, asked for time to speak to his client about a possible change in plea.

The schoolgirl was found dead in her bunk bed at home in Woking, Surrey after Sharif and Batool fled to Pakistan where he made a 999 call on August 10 last year confessing: 'I killed my daughter'.

She had suffered at least 71 external injuries, including dozens of broken bones.

A postmortem examination revealed ten spinal fractures and further fractures to her right collar bone, both shoulder blades, both arms, both hands, three separate fingers, bones near the wrist in each hand, two ribs and her hyoid bone in the neck.

Sharif had denied causing any of the injuries throughout his trial, but on his seventh day on the witness box today, he asked if he could say something to jurors.

He told them: 'I did what I did. I want do admit it, that it is all my fault.

'That I admit what I said in my (999) phone call and my written note.'

He asked to sit down and wept as Ms Carberry asked: 'She died because you beat her. So that is true?'

He said: 'Yes ma'am. I take full responsibility.

But he shook his head when asked if he intended to cause serious harm or to kill her.

Sharif, Batool and Malik, all deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.

The trial continues.