Sara Sharif murder trial latest: Schoolgirl, 10, suffered more than 70 recent injuries says pathologist

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.

Police constable George Van Der Waart told the court on Tuesday that he was dispatched to the Sharif family home shortly before 3am on 10 August, following Mr Sharif’s 999 call.

Giving evidence, he said he entered through an unlocked rear door and found the downstairs clean with no signs of any disturbance.

He discovered Sara’s body on a bunk bed in an upstairs bedroom with a fan switched on, he added.

“There was a blanket on the bed and…underneath the white sheet I could see a human shaped figure,” he told the Old Bailey. “I pulled back the cover and underneath was the body of a 10-year-old girl.”

He described her as being “placed” on the bed, where she was lying on her back. Asked about the sheet, he added: “It was neat on top literally like it had been laid there.”