Sara Sharif murder trial latest: Stepmother regularly ‘screamed’ and ‘lost her temper’, neighbour tells jury

Jurors have heard that neighbours had heard screaming and shouting from the 10-year-old’s home

Sara Sharif suffered a ‘constellation’ of injuries (Surrey Police/PA) (PA Media)

Sara Sharif’s stepmother was heard “shouting” towards Sara Sharif as far back as 2018, a neighbour has told the Old Bailey.

Beinash Batool would allegedly lose her temper and was heard using foul language to speak to the 10-year-old, while a door “rattling” was heard as if someone had been locked in a bedroom.

The trial of three family members accused of murdering schoolgirl Sara Sharif has resumed on Wednesday, with a number of neighbours set to give evidence.

Jurors have been told of a “campaign of abuse” against Sara, which left her with over 70 injuries and 25 different fractures, include a broken bone in her neck.

She was discovered dead in a bunkbed at the family home in Woking, after her father Urfan Sharif contacted Surrey Police from Pakistan on 10 August last year to say he had “beat her up too much”

Sharif, 42, her stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and her uncle Faisal Malik, 29, have all denied her murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between 16 December 2022 and 9 August 2023.

Key Points

• Neighbour had heard ‘banging’ and screaming as far back as 2018
• Swearing and gut-wrenching screams allegedly heard from family home
• The key dates in Sara Sharif’s tragic death

[23 October 2024 03:00 · Holly Evans]

Pictured: Note allegedly found by Sara Sharif’s body

A note that was allegedly found by Sara Sharif’s body in her father’s handwriting has been pictured in court.

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.

It is alleged within hours of her death the defendants had booked a flight out of the country.

Read the full article here:

[23 October 2024 01:00 · Holly Evans]

Stepmother of Sara Sharif requests ‘earliest possible’ flights after child’s death

[23 October 2024 00:00 · Holly Evans]

The key dates in Sara Sharif’s tragic death after alleged ‘campaign of abuse’

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.

Read the full article here:

[22 October 2024 23:00 · Holly Evans]

Sara had suffered injuries for up to three months before her death

On Thursday, the court was shown X-rays of some of Sara’s injuries, including fractures in the fingers of her left hand and one in the u-shaped hyoid bone in her neck.

A pathologist, bone specialist Professor Anthony Freemont, told the court he had concluded the break in her neck had been caused “within the setting of neck compression” of which “the most common cause of these types of fractures is manual strangulation”.

He said that, according to his analysis, this injury was between six to 12 weeks old at the time of Sara’s death.

Professor Freemont said the two fractures in the girl’s fingers had occurred between 12 and 18 days before her death, based on his analysis of the stage of healing the injuries were at.

Of the injuries he examined, Professor Freemont said: “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”.

[22 October 2024 21:38 · Holly Evans]

How did this happen to Sara Sharif? What we know about the events leading to schoolgirl’s death

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.

Read the full article here:

[22 October 2024 20:21 · Holly Evans]

Police bodycam footage from night Sara Sharif's body was discovered

[22 October 2024 19:20 · Holly Evans]

Who was Sara Sharif?

Over the last week, jurors at the Old Bailey have heard harrowing details of a “campaign of abuse” allegedly inflicted upon Sara Sharif in the months before she died.

She was discovered dead in a bed at the family home on Hammond Road in Woking, after her father Urfan Sharif called Surrey Police during the early hours of 10 August to report he had “beat her” as she was being “naughty”, and that she had died.

Upon finding her body, police also found a handwritten note by Sharif in which he confessed to killing her, and said that he was “running away” as he was scared.

The court previously heard that Sara’s teacher described her as a ‘happy child’ (Surrey Police/PA) (PA Media)

A post-mortem examination found a catalogue of injuries across the 10-year-old, including more than 70 separate injuries, a traumatic brain injury, 25 fractures, a burn from an iron and scalding from hot water. She was also found with six suspected human bite marks.

Jurors heard that neighbours who resided next to the family had heard screaming and shouting coming from the property, and traces of Sara’s blood were discovered on items such as a cricket bat.

Her father, her stepmother Beinash Batool and her uncle Faisal Malik have all denied her murder.

[22 October 2024 18:45 · Holly Evans]

ICYMI: Sara Sharif had suffered multiple fractures across 25 locations on her body

Sara Sharif suffered 25 unexplained fractures in multiple locations across her body, as well as an “extremely rare” neck injury that a radiologist had never seen before in a child, a court has heard.

A skeletal scan had revealed ten fractures to her spine, as well as ones to her right clavicle, left and right scapular, to her spine and ribs, elbow and hands.

Professor Owen Arthurs, who conducted an examination of the 10-year-old’s body, concluded that these had been most likely caused by “multiple episodes of blunt force trauma inflicted over several weeks”.

Read the full article here:

[22 October 2024 18:22 · Holly Evans]

Welcome to our live coverage

Welcome to our live coverage of the trial into the murder of Sara Sharif, which will resume on Wednesday with neighbours set to give evidence.

We’ll bring you all the latest updates