Sara Sharif, 10, was strangled before death and showed signs of starvation, court hears
17 October 2024, 20:02
Some readers may find the following details distressing
Ten-year-old Sara Sharif was strangled until a bone broke in her neck in the months before her death, a court heard on Thursday.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Sara Sharif had suffered more than 70 injuries in the weeks and months leading up to her death, jurors were told.
She was found dead at her home in Woking, Surrey, in August last year.
Her dad, Urfan Sharif, 42, stepmum Beinash Batool, 29, and Urfan's brother, Faisal Malik, 28 are all standing trial charged with her murder.
On Thursday, the court was shown X-rays of some of her injuries, including fractures in the fingers of her left hand and one in the u-shaped hyoid bone in her neck.
Bone specialist Professor Anthony Freemont told the court he found a break in her neck had been caused "within the setting of neck compression" of which "the most common cause of these types of fractures is manual strangulation".
He said that, according to his analysis, this injury was between six to 12 weeks old at the time of Sara's death.
Two fractures in Sara’s fingers had occurred between 12 and 18 days before her death, the doctor said.
Professor Freemont said: "If you find fractures of different ages and different bones, there is a high likelihood they are non-accidental injuries."
The pathologist added that bone marrow samples from Sara’s body showed changes which could have been caused by starvation or "the rapid removal of all food".
Chilling bodyworn camera footage shows the first police officers entering the home of Sara Sharif.
The footage shows police arriving at the house in Woking in Surrey around five minutes after being called by Urfan Sharif, Sara's father.
The officers walk around the ground floor of the house, which is in darkness, asking if anyone is at home.
Finally, the officer whose bodyworn footage is being played walks up the stairs towards Sara's bedroom.
The rest of the family had flown to Pakistan after Sara's death, and Sharif had called police to tell her that she had died.
Bodyworn camera footage of first officers arriving at Sara Sharif house
A note left by Sara's bed, ostensibly from Sharif, claims he killed her.
Jurors at the trial were shown the note found next to Sara's body at the family home in Woking last year.
The note read: "It's me, Urfan Sharif who killed my daughter by beating. I swear to God it was not my intention to kill her but I lost it."
It added: "I'm running away because I'm scared."
The note also said: "My daughter is Muslim. Can you bury her like Muslim may be. I will be back before you finish the post mortem."
The day after her death, Sara’s whole family fled on a flight out of the UK to Pakistan.
Her father was thousands of miles away when he made the call to Surrey Police to confess her death.
