Sara Sharif murder trial latest: Pathologist tells jury what caused 10-year-old’s death

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.

Police found Sara’s body in a bunk bed in her home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10 last year following a call from Sharif in Pakistan saying he “beat her up too much” for being “naughty”, the court has heard.

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Jurors were taken through a catalogue of at least 71 recent injuries found on Sara Sharif’s body by a pathologist.

However Dr Cary told the Old Bailey that it is impossible to know if each mark was the result of one injury or multiple injuries, meaning the total figure is not known.

“There are multiple marks all over the body,” the expert told the court. They include bruises, abrasions, skin ulcers consistent with burns, probable bite marks and an incised wound consistent with sharp force trauma on her left arm, the court heard.

In addition, a CT scan revealed multiple skeletal injuries, the jury was told.

The schoolgirl was subjected to a “campaign of abuse” and suffered “brutal” injuries in the weeks before she died, it is alleged. All three defendants deny charges of murder and causing or allowing her death.

Sara Sharif’s father cried as he confessed to killing his daughter in a phone call to police from Pakistan, a court has heard.

Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of murdering 10-year-old Sara alongside her stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 29.

On Thursday, jurors were played a recording of the eight-and-a-half-minute phone call Sharif made to the police non-emergency 101 number on 2.47am on 10 August 2023, two days after Sara died.

Here is the full transcript of the recording.

Jurors at the Old Bailey are being shown graphics outlining a string of injuries found on the 10-year-old schoolgirl’s body.

Dr Nathaniel Cary, who carried out the post-mortem, described finding “intense purplish red bruising” around her neck and torso.

Giving evidence, he said these would have been the result of either “blunt impact or solid pressure, or both”.

He also found bruising with “tram track features” on her torso. This was consistent with “being struck with an elongated object” he explained under questioning from prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC.

“That would produce a tram track type bruise.”

Multiple parallel transverse linear red marks found were also found elsewhere on her body. The expert said suffering a number of strikes was the “simplest explanation” for this type of injury.

The pathologist also found a number of skin ulcers consistent with burns, the jury were told. The injuries were described as a combination of older and fresher marks.

Standing trial accused of Sara’s murder are her father, Urfan Sharif, his wife Beinash Batool and his brother, Faisal Malik.

All three had been living at the address in Hammond Road, Woking, with the proseuctor arguing it was “inconceivable” that just one of them had acted alone and been unaware of the abuse.

Sara Sharif’s blood was found on a cricket bat and a vacuum cleaner at the family home, jurors at the Old Bailey were told on Tuesday.

Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC also alleged that bruises found on the 10-year-old’s 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.

The schoolgirl was subjected to a “campaign of abuse” and suffered “brutal” injuries in the weeks before she died, it is alleged. All three defendants deny charges of murder and causing or allowing her death.