A radiologist who examined the body of murdered schoolgirl Sara Sharif has claimed that her injuries were comparable to being ‘kicked by a horse’.
The 10-year-old girl sustained at least 25 different bone fractures and 71 external injuries inflicted on her as she was tortured in the days before she died, the court heard.
Professor Owen Arthurs, consultant paediatric radiologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital discussed the 10 spinal fracture he had discovered on the child saying ‘Spinal fractures (in children) are very rare, even in specialist trauma centres and they are usually caused by high impact, high trauma incidents, such as road traffic accidents, falls from height or being kicked by a horse.’
The fractures to both scapula, or shoulder blades, had been caused by ‘blunt force trauma.’
Her father, cab driver Urfan Sharif, 42, his partner Beinash Batool, 30, and her brother, McDonald’s worker Faisal Malik, 29, all deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The 10-year-old girl sustained at least 25 different bone fractures and 71 external injuries inflicted on her she was tortured in the days before she died, the court heard today
Court artist drawing by Elizabeth Cook of Sarah Sharif’s father Urfan Sharif (right) her uncle Faisal Malik (left), and stepmother Beinash Batool (centre), sitting alongside dock officers at the Old Bailey in London
The family home on Hammond Road in Woking, Surrey, where the body of 10-year-old Sara Sharif was found. Sara had been strangled until a bone in her neck broke up to three months before she died
A post-mortem revealed Sara had suffered ‘multiple and extensive injuries’ over a ‘sustained and extended’ period of time.
She was found to have ten spinal fractures and further fractures to her right collar bone, both shoulder blades, both arms, both hands, three separate fingers, bones near the wrist in each hand, two ribs and her hyoid bone in the neck.
Sara also had severe burn marks inflicted by an iron and six bite marks.
After the killing Sharif fled to Pakistan with Batool and Malik, leaving Sara’s body in the three bedroom house in Woking.
They were arrested more than a month later on September 13 last year at Gatwick Airport having flown back from Dubai.
Sara had probably died on 8 August, two days before Urfan called police.
Giving evidence at The Old Bailey today Professor Arthurs said: ‘Many fractures can occur accidentally and many fractures can occur from a single event.
‘But my opinion was that they were very unusual and they cannot be explained by accidental mechanism nor can they be explained by any single high impact trauma event.
‘My opinion for the most likely explanation for the constellation of the injuries are multiple episodes of blunt force trauma inflicted over several weeks.’
Police later charged Sharif, his wife Beinash Batool, 30, (left) and his younger brother Faisal Malik, 29, (right) who were all living in the house at the time of the murder
Ten-year-old Sara Sharif (pictured) had been strangled until a bone in her neck broke, in the weeks leading up to her murder, the Old Bailey has heard
Sara’s father Urfan Sharif (pictured), 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
Professor Arthurs spoke of the rarity of some of the fractures that Sara suffered, particularly the breaks in both shoulder blades and the hyoid bone.
He said: ‘Scapular fractures are very rare in children, there are big muscles in place and it also moves, it is quite difficult to fracture your scapular in a sporting injury or anything like that.
‘These are almost certainly caused by direct blunt force trauma to the body.
‘I can’t think of an accidental way whereby you would fracture both scapulars at the same time.
‘I haven’t ever seen a hyoid fracture in a child even in those when we have a history of ligature strangulation,’ he said.
‘Presence of a hyoid fracture suggests severe neck compression.
‘The most likely cause here is manual strangulation.’
Once inside the home where Shona was found, an officer was filmed repeatedly shouting, ‘Police, hello’, before the camera panned to a colleague putting on purple latex gloves
Professor Anthony Freemont, an osteoarticular pathologist, has told the court that Sara’s hyoid bone fracture happened three months before she died and the fractures in her left hand was caused around two weeks before her death.
Professor Arthurs confirmed a wide range of timelines regarding Sara’s fractures, including a fracture in her trapezium bone in the right hand that was less than ten days old.
He told the jury that the fractures to her shoulder blades were up to six weeks old.
One of her vertebrae had started to heal after a fracture but was the broken again.
Sara’s ten spinal fractures were less than four weeks old, he said.
Sharif, Batool and Malik, all deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
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