Sara Sharif murder trial latest: Schoolgirl showed signs of starvation and had ‘unusual’ injuries, jury told

Proseuctor Bill Emlyn-Jones has resumed questioning Surrey Police analyst Vernie Govender at the Old Bailey.

We’ll bring you all the latest updates.

The trial has broken for lunch and will resume at 2pm.

Schoolgirl Sara Sharif was hooded, restrained and beaten with a belt buckle and pole in a “campaign of abuse” lasting more than two years before her death, a court has heard.

Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of his 10-year-old daughter’s murder alongside Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 29. All three deny murder and the defence is yet to mount its case.

Police found Sara’s body in a bunk bed in her family home in Woking, Surrey, on 10 August last year, with “disturbing” injuries that included bitemarks, scalding and broken bones.

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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 suffered fractures in her fingers and left hand up to 12 to 18 days before her death, the Old Bailey has heard.

She had also suffered a fracture to her hyoid bone in her neck, which is believed to have occurred between six to 12 weeks before she died on 8 August.

Jurors have heard from Professor Anthony Freemont, an osteoarticular pathologist, who examined bones from Sara’s body.

He added that her bone marrow had been “unusual” in his examination, and had shown up with a “bluey tinge” which revealed itself to be gelatinous transformation of the bone marrow. This can often be associated with starvation or the rapid removal of nutrition, although Professor Freemont could not say if this was a direct cause.

The trial of Urfan Sharif, Beinash Batool and Faisal Malik has resumed for the fourth day at the Old Bailey.

Jurors are expected to hear evidence from Professor Anthony Freemont, an osteoarticular pathologist.

• Sara Sharif had suffered more than 70 injuries shortly before she was found dead in her home, the court heard.

• Giving evidence on Wednesday, forensic pathologist Dr Nathaniel Cary presented his findings from a post-mortem examination of Sara’s body he carried out on August 15 2023 which took around three hours.

• He gave the girl’s cause of death as “complications arising from multiple injuries and neglect”.

• He said some of Sara’s external injuries, which included dozens of bruises, grazes and burns, were the result of “repetitive blunt trauma” and “blunt impact or solid pressure, or both.”

• He told the more than 71 injuries to the little girl’s body included significant damage internally, including bleeding on her brain, multiple bruises on her lungs and multiple skeletal injuries, jurors heard.