- Sara Sharif’s father, stepmother and uncle appeared in court accused of murder
- The girl’s body was found at home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10 last year
The father, stepmother and uncle accused of murdering ten-year-old Sara Sharif in their Surrey home have appeared in court today.
Urfan Sharif, 42, along with partner Beinash Batool, 29, and brother Faisal Malik, 28, all deny murder as well as causing or allowing the death of a child.
The three, who spent more than a month in Pakistan following Sara’s death, were arrested on September 13 at Gatwick airport as they disembarked a flight from Dubai.
Sara’s body was discovered at her home in Woking, Surrey, on 10 August last year.
A post-mortem revealed she had suffered ‘multiple and extensive injuries’ over a ‘sustained and extended’ period of time.
10-year-old Sara Sharif (pictured) was discovered at her home in Woking, Surrey, on 10 August last year after authorities received a call from Pakistan
Sara’s father, Urfan Sharif (left); stepmother Beinash Batool (centre); and uncle, Faisal Malik (right), are accused of her murder
A day before the girl’s body was found, Sharif, Batool, and Malik flew to Pakistan. They had not been seen in a month.
Batool appeared at the Old Bailey today via video link from HMP Bronzefield while Sharif and Malik appeared sat together at HMP Belmarsh wearing grey prison tracksuits.
The six week trial is likely to take place before Mr Justice Cavanagh in October on a date to be confirmed.
They are charged with murder on or about 8 August 2023 and causing or allowing the death of a child between 16 December 2022 and 9 August 2023.
The second charge alleges they each caused or were aware of a ‘significant risk of serious physical harm being caused’ to Sara, and that they ‘failed to take full steps as could have reasonably been expected to protect her from that risk.’
Prosecutor Giles Bedloe earlier said: ‘These defendants have been charged with the murder of 10-year-old Sara Sharif as well as the offence of allowing her death.
‘In the upstairs bedroom on a set of bunk beds attending officers pulled back the blanket and found the body of a young girl.
A previous court hearing was told police had found Sara’s body after receiving a call from Pakistan, which lasted eight minutes and 34 seconds, at 2.47am on August 10
Sara, who suffered ‘multiple and extensive injuries’, pictured playing in a garden
‘She was fully clothed on the centre of the bed lying face up.
‘Sara sustained a number of injuries – a healed fracture to one of her clavicles, multiple rib fractures, multiple bruising to the torso and limbs and the presence of haemorrhage on her brain.
‘There were multiple healing fractures on different parts of body suggesting multiple events of violence over a period of time which must have culminated in her death.’
The defendants will next appear for a case management hearing next Friday.
Sara’s mother, Olga Sharif, had visited the £550,000 red-brick home in the village of Horsell five days after her daughter’s death to lay flowers in her memory.
The young girl was previously a pupil at St Mary’s Church of England primary school in Byfleet.
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