Sara Sharif’s dad, step-mum & uncle plead NOT GUILTY to ‘murder’ of 10-year-old found in bed with ‘extensive injuries’
SARA Sharif’s dad has pleaded not guilty to murder after the 10-year-old was found dead with “extensive injuries”.
Urfan Sharif, 41, Sara’s step-mum Beinash and uncle Faisal Malik today appeared at the Old Bailey after being charged over the schoolgirl’s death.
The trio today denied murder as they appeared via video link.
They will now face a trial in September next year.
The group had returned from Pakistan in September and appeared in court in the days that followed, charged with murdering Sara and causing or allowing the death of a child.
At the time, Sharif, Batool, 29, and Malik, 28, spoke only to confirm their names and dates of birth.
The male defendants were at Belmarsh high security prison in South London and Batool was at Bronzefield jail in Surrey.
Police launched a probe after Sara’s body was found under a blanket in a bunk bed at her home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10.
Cops had been alerted in a call from Pakistan, which lasted eight minutes and 34 seconds, at 2.47am that day.
Officers arrived at the home and found the young girl lying face up and fully clothed in an upstairs room.
Prosecutor Giles Bedloe 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.
“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 day prior Sharif, Batool, and Malik left the UK for Pakistan with five children.
The trio returned the following month, and were arrested at Gatwick Airport.
At a previous magistrates’ court hearing, the prosecution had outlined the events leading to the charges.
Sara was identified using the DNA of her mother Olga Sharif, who lives in Somerset, and another relative, the court was told previously.
It is alleged that Sara died as a result of third-party involvement.