Sara Sharif suffered more than 70 injuries at the hands of her family before she died, a court heard.
The 10-year-old schoolgirl was allegedly beaten to death by her father Urfan, 42 before he fled to Pakistan and confessed in a 999 call: ‘I killed my daughter.’
The nature of her injuries, which included several fractured bones, bites, burns, and a portion of her finger being hacked out with a sharp object, was horrifyingly described before the Old Bailey.
She had 71 external injuries in all, including 10 fractures to her spine, two broken ribs, a fractured collar bone, shoulder blades, fractures in both arms, wrists, and three fingers.
A post-mortem revealed Sara had suffered ‘multiple and extensive injuries’ over a ‘sustained and extended’ period of time.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones told the jurors that she had too many bruises, grazes, puncture wounds, abrasions, and markings on her whole body.
Forensic pathologist Dr Nathaniel Cary said Sara had endured ‘significant and repetitive blunt trauma’ which may have rendered her unconscious or caused a fit.
She suffered ‘terminal’ head injuries which caused bleeding on her brain and her lungs were also bruised.
But Dr Cary said it was difficult to pinpoint which injury caused her death: ‘All I can say is she died after a number of injuries which included brain injury.’
The court heard that she may have been left ‘unconscious or unhelped’ after an older head injury two to five days before the murder.
In addition, she had other previous injuries, such as scars on her forearm, legs, and jawline.
She had been tied up, possibly to a hot pipe, her ankles were scalded with hot water, and she had burn marks on her buttock from an iron.
Dr Cary said just the burn injuries themselves could have proved fatal if it caused sepsis.
All over her head and face were grazes and bruises, with a significant graze on her nose and bruising on her right cheek and ear.
The pathologist also described a sharp puncture wound on Sara’s forehead which had been left ‘gaping’.
There were five bite marks on her lower left arm and one on the inner thigh, indicating that the teeth had been ‘dragged across the surface’.
Dental tests revealed her father or uncle Faisal Malk, 29, were not responsible for the marks, but her stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, refused to submit to testing.
The court has previously heard that police were later able to match some of the bruises to weapons found in her home including a plastic-coated metal pole and a belt buckle.
The youngster, who weighed just 27 kilograms when she died, had a collar of ‘intense’ purple bruising around her neck, which jurors have heard was the result of ‘blunt impact, solid pressure’ or strangulation.
There was further ‘tram track’ bruising on her abdomen and around the belly button.
The victim was reportedly bound, hooded, and assaulted with a rolling pin and a cricket bat, among other weapons, according to earlier testimony given to the jury.
The defendants allegedly buried her corpse under the pink blankets of her bunk bed after her death on August 8 of last year, arranging it to appear as though she was asleep.
The following day, her brother Faisal Malik, a worker at McDonald’s, her father Urfan Sharif, a cab driver, and his wife Beinash Batool escaped to Pakistan.
Sharif later rang 999 from Pakistan to tell police: ‘It wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.’
When the trio arrived back at Gatwick Airport on September 13 of last year, they were all arrested one month later.
Sharif, Batool and Malik all deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial is still ongoing.
Everyone who contributed to her death has equal responsibility, and this is absolutely heartbreaking.
Their neighbours probably heard some sounds of what was going on but did not rationalise the sounds. Some people will overreact when there isn’t a reason to act, and some people won’t respond at all!
The neighbours, on the other hand, could have come from a similar background, heard everything, and accepted it as usual.
No one helped this little girl, though I’m sure they heard and saw things but did nothing. We all have a duty of care to children, and this kind of stuff makes me want to cry.
Why the child’s school did not intervene is what puzzles me, but then again her little body would have been covered from head to toe in clothing from her origin. On the other hand, how did she even attend school with this level of violence? But shame on anybody that could have helped, and perhaps did nothing, and how long would her little body have lain undiscovered if her torturer hadn’t phoned the police?
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 