The Man Convicted Of Torturing His 10-Year-Old Daughter Was Nearly Killed In Prison—Two Inmates Allegedly Used A Tuna Can Lid As A Weapon 😱🚨
The makeshift blade was the jagged lid of a tuna tin. On New Year’s Day 2025, two inmates at HMP Belmarsh allegedly used it to slash the throat of Urfan Sharif inside his cell. The man convicted of torturing his ten-year-old daughter to death was left fighting for his life.
Steven Sansom, 47, and Adam Watson, 39, have now been charged with attempted murder and section 18 offences. They will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 26 August. Sharif survived the attack after emergency treatment and stitches, but the scars remain. A prison source described the assault as planned. The pair rushed into the cell, the source said, and sliced Sharif across the neck and face. Guards had tried to keep him safe because of the notoriety of his crime. Word had spread quickly through the prison about who he was. Many inmates, the source claimed, viewed an attack as inevitable.
Sharif had only recently begun his sentence. In December 2024 he was given a life term with a minimum of 40 years for the prolonged abuse and murder of his daughter Sara. The ten-year-old suffered what a judge called “unimaginable pain” over more than two years. She was beaten with a cricket bat, a metal pole and a rolling pin, strangled until her neck broke, burned with an iron and bitten. Mr Justice Cavanagh described the cruelty as “inconceivable” and said it took place in plain sight of the rest of the family. Sara’s stepmother, Beinash Batool, received 33 years. An uncle, Faisal Malik, was jailed for 16 years.
The attack on Sharif occurred inside one of Britain’s most secure prisons. Belmarsh holds high-risk offenders, including terrorists, and maintains a high-security unit often described as a prison within a prison. The last inspection recorded 226 prisoner-on-prisoner assaults in a single year, an 11 per cent rise. Even in that environment, the source said, child killers occupy a particularly dangerous position. “A lot of them don’t like people who attack children,” the source stated. “A lot of them are saying how it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy.”
Sansom is already serving a whole-life tariff. He was convicted of murdering Sarah Mayhew, 38, and disposing of her remains in different locations across London. At the time of that killing he was out on life licence after murdering a taxi driver in 1998. Watson is serving 21 years for the murder of mother-of-two Samantha Holden in her Farnborough home. Both men now face the additional allegation that they tried to kill another high-profile prisoner with a weapon fashioned from everyday prison canteen materials.
The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that prosecutors worked closely with the Metropolitan Police and concluded there was sufficient evidence to charge. Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor Daren Streeter emphasised that proceedings are active and that the defendants have the right to a fair trial. Reporting that could prejudice the case is restricted.
For the family of Sara Sharif, the prison attack adds another layer to an already harrowing story. The little girl who stood up to her father, described by the judge as brave, feisty and spirited, was systematically destroyed in her own home. Her father’s arrival at Belmarsh placed him among some of the most dangerous men in the country. Within weeks, according to the allegations, two of those men decided he should not leave the prison alive.
The choice of weapon has drawn particular attention. A tuna can lid, sharpened or used as found, became an instrument capable of inflicting life-threatening injuries. Prison authorities face ongoing challenges in preventing the creation of such improvised blades. The fact that the attack occurred inside a cell, and that Sharif was left in a critical condition, raises questions about supervision and the practical limits of protection for high-profile inmates.
Sharif’s survival means the attempted murder charges can proceed. The case will test the evidence of planning, the forensic links to the weapon, and the accounts of any witnesses or officers who responded. Sansom and Watson already face the prospect of spending the rest of their lives, or decades, behind bars. An additional conviction for attempting to kill a fellow prisoner would extend that reality further.
Belmarsh has housed some of the most notorious offenders in recent British criminal history. The presence of a man convicted of the torture and murder of a child was always likely to create tension. The prison source’s assessment that an attack was “only a matter of time” reflects a grim hierarchy that exists even among those convicted of the most serious crimes. Child killers occupy a particular place in that hierarchy, one that can make them targets regardless of the security rating of the prison.
The legal process now moves forward. The two accused will appear in court later this month. Sharif continues to serve the minimum 40-year term imposed for Sara’s murder. The scars from the New Year’s Day attack will remain visible long after the legal arguments have concluded. For the public that followed Sara’s case with horror, the prison violence is a postscript that does not alter the central tragedy: a ten-year-old girl subjected to sustained cruelty until her body could no longer survive it.
The tuna can lid, the cell door, the emergency medical response, and the subsequent charges form the outline of an alleged prison revenge attack. Whether the evidence ultimately proves the case will be decided in court. What is already established is that Urfan Sharif, the man found guilty of killing his daughter, came close to dying inside the prison that was supposed to hold him for the rest of his natural life. The two men accused of trying to make that happen now face their own day in court.