The father of a 10-year-old girl who was found dead in England called U.K. police after fleeing to Pakistan to admit that he had killed his daughter, prosecutors said Monday.

Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial at London’s Central Criminal Court on allegations he, his partner Beinash Batool and his brother Faisal Malik murdered Sara Sharif, according to The Associated Press.

Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones said all three defendants played a part in a “campaign of abuse” against Sara in the weeks leading up to her death.

Police found Sara’s body under a blanket in a bunk bed at her home in Woking, which is located southwest of London, on Aug. 10, 2023, with dozens of injuries, including extensive bruising, burns and fractures. The child died of unnatural causes, according to a post-mortem examination.

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Jones said law enforcement learned of Sara’s death after her father called U.K. police from Pakistan and said: “I’ve killed my daughter. I legally punished her, and she died.” 

He also told the phone operator he did not intend to kill her, but he had “beat her up too much,” the prosecutor said.

Urfan Sharif, Batool and Malik fled the U.K. for the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Aug. 9.

Police in Pakistan located the three suspects following a search and subsequently sent them to the U.K., where they were arrested upon landing at London’s Gatwick Airport. They were held in prison as they awaited trial.

A view of HM Coroner’s Court Surrey in Woking, following the death of 10-year-old Sara Sharif who was found dead at a property on Hammond Road in Woking, Surrey, on August 10.  (Getty Images)

Jones said the three suspects had lived in the same house as Sara and that it was “inconceivable” that only one of them was responsible for the girl’s death.

The prosecutor said each of the suspects attempted to blame the others for the killing. Urfan Sharif had claimed that Batool, who is Sara’s stepmother, was responsible for the girl’s death and that he made a false confession to protect her.

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Sharif family lawyer, Attiq Malik, outside Guildford Magistrates’ Court, where Urfan Sharif, the father of Sara Sharif, is among three people to face court on Friday charged with the 10-year-old’s murder. (Getty Images)

A recording of a phone call made on the evening of Aug. 8, 2023, the day Sara was believed to have been killed, was played for the jury. In the recording, Batool can be heard asking about booking a flight to Islamabad for four adults and four children.

The three suspects deny murdering Sara or causing or allowing the girl’s death.

The trial is expected to continue until December.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Polish government is accelerating efforts to strengthen the defence of Poland’s eastern borders with Russia and Belarus. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Monday that construction of the so-called “East Shield’ project will begin by the end of this year, not next year, as planned.

The project will include the construction of military fortifications and other defence measures, physical barriers, state-of-the-art airspace monitoring systems, and electronic equipment and systems.

The first exercises in testing elements for the construction of the East Shield began at the military training ground in Orzysz, in north-eastern Poland. The fortifications are to appear over a length of approximately 800 kilometres, wherever they are needed. Their construction is expected to last four years.

Among the exercises were scenarios like crossing the Polish border by enemy forces, attempting to overcome an anti-tank ditch and concrete hedgehog barrier by enemy soldiers, establishing fire contact, and an attempt to bypass the barrier.

Tusk was on site to observe the exercises, along with the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Wladysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.

Poland is joined by several other NATO members in launching initiatives to strengthen borders with Russia. The Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia recently began constructing the so-called “Baltic Defence Line” and Tusk also noted that Finland is involved in the project.

“This is a joint venture, not only Polish, it is also combined with the efforts of the Baltic states when it comes to the Baltic Defence Line,” he said, and mentioned that co-financing will be discussed in Brussels in the near future.

He also wrote in a post on X that it is “our right and our duty is to protect the Polish and European border, adding that “its security will not be subject to negotiation.”

“I am glad that it has already become a fact that the British are also cooperating with us on the East Shield, and the Americans are ready,” Tusk added.

“There will be European funds for all this, not only national ones. I will talk about it in Brussels in the coming days and weeks,” he announced.

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (AP) — A Minnesota horticulture teacher remained the reigning champion Monday of an annual pumpkin-weighing contest in Northern California where his massive gourds have won the top prize four years in a row.

Travis Gienger, of Anoka, Minnesota, beat his closest competitor by 6 pounds (2.7 kilograms) to clinch the victory at the 51st World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco.

His winning gourd came in at 2,471 pounds (1,121 kilograms), falling short of the world record he set last year with a pumpkin weighing 2,749 pounds (1,247 kilograms).

Gienger, 44, said that as he has done in the past, he focused on having healthy soil and well-fed plants but that a cold fall with record-breaking rain likely impacted his pumpkin’s growth.

“We had really, really tough weather and somehow, some way, I kept on working,” Gienger said. “I had to work for this one, and we got it done at the end, but it wasn’t by much.”

Gienger and his family drove his gargantuan gourd for 35 hours to California.

He said the giant pumpkin’s next stop will be in Southern California, where a team of professional carvers will do a 3D carve on it at a Halloween event.