Sara Sharif murder trial latest: Radiologist had never seen 10-year-old’s ‘very rare’ injury on child before
Jury presented with evidence by radiologist as trial of father, stepmother and uncle continues
Sara Sharif had suffered an “extremely rare” fracture in her neck, which a radiologist said he had “never seen” in a child before.
Examinations showed she had an injury to her hyoid bone in her throat, which was likely to have been caused between six to 12 weeks before her death.
Professor Owen Arthurs told jurors that the schoolgirl had suffered “multiple unexplained fractures in 25 locations on the body” which could not have occurred by accident or in a single event.
It comes after jurors at the Old Bailey were told on Thursday that the 10-year-old’s bone marrow had been “unusual” in an examination of her body, which can often be associated with starvation or the rapid removal of nutrition.
Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, 42, her stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and her uncle Faisal Malik, 29, all deny her murder.
Surrey Police discovered the schoolgirl dead in a bedroom at her home in Woking on 10 August last year.
The court heard earlier in the week that Sara’s head was covered with “homemade hoods” made of plastic bags and parcel tape in the weeks before her death.
Jurors were also told neighbour Chloe Redwin would hear “shockingly loud” sounds of “smacking” from their family home followed by “gut-wrenching screams”.
Listen: Sara Sharif’s father tells 999 operator he’s killed daughter
Pictured: Sara Sharif before her death
The key dates in Sara Sharif’s tragic death after alleged ‘campaign of abuse’
Ten-year-old Sara Sharif died after an alleged “campaign of abuse” in the home she shared with her father, stepmother and uncle.
A court heard on Tuesday that a “high pitched scream” was heard two days before the 10-year-old was killed and her family fled to Pakistan.
Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of his daughter’s murder alongside Sara’s stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 29.
Read the full article here:
The key dates in Sara Sharif’s tragic death after alleged ‘campaign of abuse’
A post-mortem examination found Sara Sharif had suffered dozens of injuries including ‘probable human bite marks’
Recap: How did Sara die?
Earlier in the trial, jurors heard that a pathologist who carried out a post-mortem examination on Sara’s body gave the girl’s cause of death as “complications arising from multiple injuries and neglect”.
Police found Sara’s body in a bunk bed in her home, following a call from her father Urfan Sharif in Pakistan saying he “beat her up too much” for being “naughty”, the court has heard.
It is alleged Sara had died two days before and the defendants had booked flights out of the country within hours of her death.
Fractures were ‘highly indicative of severe inflicted physical trauma’, jury told
In the conclusion to his report, the jury were told that Professor Owen Arthurs had found that the location, pattern and severity of the fractures were “highly indicative of severe inflicted physical trauma”.
He added that given the different stages of healing present in the various fractures, they could not be explained “by accidental mechanism or a single high impact trauma event”.
“I concluded that most o the fractures individually were likely to have been caused by blunt force trauma,” he said.
The Old Bailey heard that there was no evidence that she had suffered from any underlying disease.
Police bodycam footage from night Sara Sharif's body was discovered
Trial adjourns for lunch
The trial into the murder of Sara Sharif has adjourned for the lunch break and will resume at 2.05pm.
Radiologist had ‘never seen’ a hyoid fracture in a child
Detailing a fracture to Sara’s hyoid, a u-shaped bone at the top of her neck, Professor Arthurs said it was “extremely rare”.
“I have never seen a hyoid fracture in a child, even when we have a very good history in ligature strangulation,” he said.
“The most likely cause here is manual strangulation with a degree of force above that we would commonly recognise as ligature strangulation, meaning hanging.”
He believes this was caused between six to 12 weeks before her death.
Spinal fractures likely caused by ‘high velocity impact’
A radiologist who examined Sara Sharif’s bones has said that her spinal fractures were likely caused by “high velocity impact or multiple trauma”.
“Spinal fractures are very rare even in specialist trauma centres and they are usually caused by road traffic accidents or falls from height,” he said.
In one case she had suffered a re-fracture to one of the vertebraes in her spine which indicated “repeated trauma”, but Professor Arthurs could not say draw a conclusion on when this had occurred.
Schoolgirl had suffered 10 spinal fractures
Sara had suffered ten spinal fractures in the weeks before she died,
Professor Owen Arthurs told jurors that they were in the “early stages of healing” and that they had been caused more than 10 days before her death and within the four week lead up to 8 August.
Other fractures were located on both shoulder blades, both arms and both hands, two ribs and to her collar bone.
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