Sara Sharif 'starved and strangled until a bone in her neck broke months before she died'

Pathologist, Professor Anthony Freemont, told the court Sara's neck injury was up to three months old and her body showed signs of 'the rapid removal of all food'

Sara Sharif had been starved and strangled until a bone in her neck broke up to three months before she died, a court has heard.

A cricket bat, rolling pins, a belt buckle and a vacuum cleaner were among the items the 10-year-old is thought to have been attacked with, jurors have been told. Her hair was pulled out and she was burned, bitten and taped up before dying at home in Woking, Surrey on August 8, 2023, the Old Bailey heard. Two days earlier a neighbour heard a "high-pitched scream" of someone in pain, it was said.

Her cab driver father Urfan Sharif, 42, who fled to Pakistan, her stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and her uncle Faisal Malik, 28, all deny murder and allowing a child's death between December 16, 2022 and August 9, 2023. On Thursday, the court was shown X-rays of some of her 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".

Police found Sara's body in a bunk bed in her home, following a call from Sharif in Pakistan saying he "beat her up too much" for being "naughty", the court has heard. It is alleged Sara had died two days before and the defendants had booked flights out of the country within hours of her death. Forensic pathologist Dr Nathaniel Cary previously told the court that 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".

Her injuries included significant damage internally, including bleeding on her brain, multiple bruises on her lungs and multiple skeletal injuries, jurors were told. No natural diseases or drugs had contributed to Sara's death, the court heard. Previously, the prosecution told jurors the 10-year-old had suffered "probable human bite marks", a burn from a domestic iron and scalding from hot water.

Traces of the schoolgirl's blood were discovered on the kitchen floor, a vacuum cleaner and a cricket bat following a police search of the family home along with "homemade hoods" used to restrain her, the prosecution said. All three 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.