Sara Sharif’s catalogue of at least 71 injuries revealed in horrific detail

Murdered schoolgirl Sara Sharif suffered at least 71 recent injuries before she was found dead in her home, the Old Bailey was told today.

The 10-year-old’s post-mortem examination showed she endured ‘multiple and extensive injuries’ over a ‘sustained and extended’ period, jurors heard.

She was found to have 10 spinal fractures and further breaks to her right collar bone, both shoulder blades, both arms, both hands, three separate fingers, bones near the wrist in each hand and two ribs.

The youngster also had severe burn marks inflicted by an iron and six bite marks.

Her dad, taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial accused of her 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.

Sara is said to have died two days before and within hours the defendants had booked a flight out of the country.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, forensic pathologist Dr Nathaniel Cary 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 court the total number of distinguishable injuries was 71 but many of them were grouped together, meaning the total was probably higher.

They included significant damage internally, including bleeding on her brain, multiple bruises on her lungs and multiple skeletal injuries, jurors heard.

Dr 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.

Sara had a height of 1.37 metres and a weight of 27 kilograms, with both measurements within the average bracket for a child her age but towards the lower end, the court heard.

The court heard no natural diseases or drugs had contributed to Sara’s death.

Among the older injuries were ‘blotchy scarring’ on the left jawline, multiple purple scars around the pelvis, marks from the lower left leg to the top of the foot and fine scars and blotchy brown discolouration on the left forearm.

Recent injuries were identified across all parts of Sara’s body, including on her face, fingers, ankles and back.

She suffered a puncture wound on her forehead which Dr Cary told jurors was ‘sharp or semi-sharp’ and had been left ‘gaping’.

There were bruises and grazes all over her head and face, including bruising on her right cheek and ear and a ‘healing, deep graze’ on her nose.

Sara also had a deep area tissue loss to the left of her ring finger that was approximately half a centimetre deep.

Dr Cary explained: ‘It is probably a type of sharp injury, something has taken a big chunk out of her finger, you can see how neatly cut the edges are.’

A collar of purple-red bruising described by Dr Cary as ‘intense’ was identified around the neck, top of the chest and shoulders which was from ‘blunt impact or solid pressure, or both’.

Further green and blue bruising was identified in the upper abdomen and around the belly button.

There was a large area of ulceration on Sara’s buttock, which Dr Cary told jurors he believed resulted from burns, while there two ulcerated areas over her ankle bones.

On Sara’s legs there were more bruises, grazes and multiple linear red marks, which the pathologist said could have come from ‘repetitive blunt trauma’.

The pathologist also brought in a forensic odontologist to analyse the ‘probable’ bite marks.

Batool refused to give a dental cast to police, the court has heard.

Previously, jurors have heard Sara had suffered an iron burn and scalding from hot water.

Traces of the 10-year-old’s blood were discovered on the kitchen floor, a vacuum cleaner and a cricket bat following a police search of the family home, the prosecution said.

The defendants, of Hammond Road in Woking, have denied murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16, 2022, and August 9, 2023.

The trial continues.

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