Sara Sharif murder trial latest: Radiologist had never seen 10-year-old’s ‘very rare’ injury on child before

Sara Sharif showed signs of starvation or the “rapid removal of food”, according to a pathologist who discovered an unusual indicator in her bone marrow, a jury was told.

A trial at the Old Bailey also heard how the 10-year-old schoolgirl had likely been strangled until a bone in her neck had broken, up to three months before she died last August.

It was one of many injuries the young girl suffered in an alleged “campaign of abuse”, which also included burns, broken bones and extensive bruising.

Read the full article from today’s court proceedings here:

Schoolgirl Sara Sharif was forced to wear “homemade hoods” of plastic bags and parcel tape as she endured a campaign of abuse which lasted up to two years, a court heard.

The 10-year-old’s blood was found on a cricket bat and a vacuum cleaner at the family home, jurors at the Old Bailey were told.

Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC also alleged that bruises found on her body matched a belt buckle and plastic-coated metal pole found in an outhouse at the property – where police also found a rolling pin with traces of her DNA.

Read the full article from Tuesday here:

Detailing her injuries, Professor Freemont said that Sara’s injury to the capitate bone in her left hand was “rare” in children, and was usually caused by “falling onto the outstretched hand or a direct blow to the hand”.

Asked if the fractures to her fingers were unusual, he responded: “They’re seen relatively frequently and they’re commonly associated with pulling the fingers apart.”

Of the fracture to her hyoid bone, he said: “It depends on the setting but in the setting of neck compression, it’s fractured in 25 per cent of cases, the most common type of cases is manual strangulation.”

Sara Sharif had been strangled until a bone in her neck broke up to three months before she died, a court has heard.

Jurors previously heard the 10-year-old had suffered more than 70 injuries, shortly before she was found dead in her home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10 last year.

Sara’s father 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.

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The trial of Urfan Sharif, Beinash Batool and Faisal Malik has been adjourned for the day, and will resume on Friday.

Cell site data shows in the weeks before Sara’s death, the defendants continued life as usual, with both Urfan Sharif and Faisal Malik attending work.

Meanwhile Beinash Batool had spent time organising a child’s birthday party and visited the hairdresser.

Earlier this morning, jurors heard that she been strangled until a bone in her neck broke up to three months before she died. Other injuries analysed included two fractures in the girl’s fingers which had occurred between 12 and 18 days before her death, based on his analysis of the stage of healing the injuries were at.

Earlier this morning, Professor Freemont said was questioned on the nature of the injuries and told jurors: “If you find fractures of different ages and different bones, there is a high likelihood they are non-accidental injuries.”

The pathologist went on to say that the bone marrow he examined from Sara’s body showed changes which could have been caused by starvation or “the rapid removal of all food”.

The previous day, jurors heard that another 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”.