Sara Sharif murder trial: Horrific injuries tragic girl, 10, suffered amid 'campaign of abuse'

Urfan Sharif is on trial accused of the murder of his daughter, Sara Sharif, whose body was found in bed at her home in Woking, Surrey, following an alleged "campaign of abuse"

Tragic schoolgirl Sara Sharif suffered multiple gruesome injuries amid a "campaign of abuse" before her death, a court has heard.

The 10-year-old girl, who was allegedly murdered by dad Urfan Sharif, stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 28, had extensive bruising, burns and broken bones "old and new", doctors say. They examined her body, found in bed at her home in Woking, Surrey, and told jurors today Sharif sustained these injuries over a "sustained and extended" period of time.

Details of the post-mortem were shared with the jury at the Old Bailey today, the first day of the trial. Her father sits alongside Sara's stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 28, who each deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16, 2022 and August 9, 2023.

Jurors at the Old Bailey heard how the young girl was burned with an iron, repeatedly strange and appeared to have been bitten in the weeks before she died. It was said Sara suffered an "awful constellation of injuries" that suggests she had been tied up and restrained "perhaps for lengthy periods".

She had ten separate fractures to her spine and fractures to her right collar bone, two ribs, both shoulder blades, both arms and hands and three fingers, the court heard. Sara also had what appeared to be five bite marks on her left arm and one on her inner thigh, jurors were told. Tests showed the bite marks were not made by the two male defendants, it was said. Batool refused to provide a dental impression for "comparison purposes". the court heard.

There was also evidence she had been burned on her buttocks with an iron, leaving a 6cm by 5cm mark. Opening the case, prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said of the mark: "It appears to have been caused by the sole-plate of a domestic iron, applied with pressure... It would, of course, have been extremely painful. It had not been treated."

Urfan, a taxi driver, fled to Pakistan after allegedly killing his daughter and called police to say "I legally punished her and she died," the court was told. The 42-year-old man, from Woking, is said to have called police at 2.47am on August 10 last year, crying so much the operator told him to "take a deep breath and tell me what's happened".

During the eight-and-a-half minute call, Sharif told the operator: "I've killed my daughter. I legally punished her, and she died." He went on to say "she was naughty", adding: "I beat her up, it wasn't my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much."

On arrival in Woking, police found the property was quiet, very tidy and seemingly empty. William Emlyn Jones, prosecuting, said: "In an upstairs bedroom, on a bottom bunk bed, the police found the body of a little girl, lying in bed, under the cover, as if asleep. But she was not asleep. She was dead. Next to her body was a note in Urfan Sharif's handwriting. It echoed what he had said in that 999 call."

The note allegedly stated: "It's me Urfan Sharif who killed my daughter by beating. I swear to God that my intention was not to kill her. But I lost it. I am running away because I am scared."

Mr Emlyn Jones told jurors that evidence would show Sara died on August 8 last year, two days before she was found. The following day, the whole family fled on a flight out of the UK, landing in Pakistan on August 10, meaning Sharif was thousands of miles away when he made the call to police.

Mr Emlyn Jones said an examination of Sara's body revealed that Sharif's claim to have beaten up his daughter came "nowhere near to describing the extent of the violence and physical abuse Sara had suffered" over a period of weeks.

He said: "Sara had not just been beaten up. Her treatment, certainly in the last few weeks of her life, had been appalling. It had been brutal. And throughout, these three defendants were the adults living in the house where Sara had lived, where she had suffered, and where she had died."

The prosecutor told the jury that all three defendants "played their part" in the violence and it was "inconceivable" that just one of them had acted alone.

Addressing the jury, Mr Emlyn Jones said: "Ask yourselves, how could just one person have carried out so much abuse, so many assaults, without the others knowing about it and witnessing it with their own eyes? If any one of them was not a part of it, but had seen it, why then was nothing done to stop it, or report it?"

He continued: "Each of them denies that they were the one responsible for any of that violence and abuse. Each of them seeks to deflect the blame onto one or both of the others, to shift responsibility away from themselves, onto someone else. In other words, they are pointing the finger at each other."

Jurors were told Sharif's case was that his wife, Batool, was responsible for Sara's death and his confession was false to protect her. Batool accused Sharif of being a violent disciplinarian and she was fearful of her husband, Mr Emlyn Jones said.

Malik's case is that whoever was responsible it was not him and he was unaware of what was going on, the prosecutor added. The defendants, all from Woking, have denied murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16 2022 and August 9 2023. The trial before Mr Justice Cavanagh is due to go on until December 13.

The trial continues.