Sara Sharif's evil father and stepmother will not have their jail sentences for the 10-year-old's murder changed - as an appeal judge also ruled the schoolgirl's killer dad should not receive a whole-life tariff behind bars. Urfan Sharif and Beinash Batool were jailed for life with minimum terms of 40 years and 33 years respectively in December last year, after being found guilty of her murder. Sara's uncle, Faisal Malik, was found guilty of causing or allowing her death and caged for 16 years. Innocent Sara died in August 2023 after being subjected to 'unimaginable pain, misery and anxiety,' the Old Bailey heard. During a televised sentencing in December, Mr Justice Cavanagh said her death 'was the culmination of years of neglect, frequent assaults and what can only be described as torture', mainly at the hands of her father, Sharif. On Thursday, all three brought bids to challenge their sentences at the Court of Appeal - which were rejected. But a plea by the Solicitor General to have Sharif's father's term behind bars upped to a whole-lift order was also declined by Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, who said such a punishment was a 'last resort'. Dismissing Sharif's appeal, Baroness Carr said: 'We can see no arguable basis to challenge the conclusion of the trial judge. 'We are not persuaded that anything less than a whole life order was unduly lenient.' Sitting with Mr Justice Soole and Mr Justice Goose, Baroness Carr added: 'The court should give very great weight to the assessment of the trial judge... He was in the very best position to make the assessment that he did.' Earlier in the hearing, Tom Little KC, for the Solicitor General, said Sara's murder was a rare case of such 'exceptionally high seriousness' that it warranted a whole life order for Sharif. 'This was a truly awful case of a murder of a child,' he told the court, adding that a whole life order was 'the only appropriate sentence'. He said in written submissions: 'It is submitted that it is difficult to conceive of a murder being perpetrated on a young girl by her own father that could be any more serious than this.' During a regime of terror, Sara was punched, strangled, battered with a cricket bat and metal pole, and burned with an iron The 10-year-old was found dead in a bunkbed at the family home in Woking, Surrey, in August 2023. She had suffered 71 recent injuries at the time of her death, including 25 broken bones, iron burns on her bottom, scalding marks to her feet, and human bites, appeal judges were told. Mr Little continued: 'The violence meted out to Sara was premeditated and repeated again and again, even if the murder itself was not.' Naeem Mian KC, for Sharif, said that a whole life order would not be the appropriate sentence in this case. He said: 'We say, without hesitation, this is not one of those exceptional cases.' The barrister said: 'We can all agree that this was a tragic case. Regrettably, it is the case that cases of this nature are not unique.' Caroline Carberry KC, for Sara's stepmother Batool, said her sentence was too long and did not properly reflect her secondary role. The barrister also said Batool had significant mitigation. 'Nothing we say today on behalf of Beinash Batool detracts from the horror of Sara's treatment,' she told the court.