Sara Sharif, 10, 'was strangled until bone in her neck broke in weeks leading up to her murder', court hears

Ten-year-old Sara Sharif had been strangled until a bone in her neck broke, in the weeks leading up to her murder, a court has been told.

The Old Bailey has been 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.

Jurors previously heard the youngster had suffered more than 70 injuries, shortly before she was found dead in her home in Woking in Surrey, on August 10 last year.

Sara's father Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial in London accused of his daughter's murder , alongside Sara's stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle Faisal Malik, 29.

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' - saying that 'the most common cause of these types of fractures is manual strangulation'.

Now Prof Freemont has told jurors that, according to his analysis, this injury was between six to 12 weeks old at the time of Sara's death.

Prof 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 at which the injuries were healing.

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'.

He added: 'The X-ray image you can see, this should normally be a smooth structure, and instead of that we have a big bit of bone sticking out.

'There is also a line running through in black and those two are fracture lines, indicating that this new bone formation was caused by a fracture.'

He said there was just one fracture in this instance and it was caused between six and 12 weeks before Sara's death.

An X-ray of Sara's left hand showed fractures to the index finger, pinky finger and capitate bone in the wrist.

Prof Freemont told the court: 'The healing process following a fracture goes through a number of phases - the first thing you get is bleeding when you fracture a bone.

'The next stage is the bone tissue tries to heal itself and that in itself goes through a number of different stages.

'When I looked at these two finger joints, there was early formation of new bone tissue and from that basis and some other features all of which have their own time frame, I age both of those fractures at 12 to 18 days before death.

'That is how we measure these, because the healing process stops at the time of death.'

The professor also confirmed the same time frame for the injury to Sara's capitate bone in her wrist.

Asked about how common these injuries were for a girl aged 10, Prof Freemont described it as an 'unusual injury' and 'most commonly caused by falling on an outstretched hand'.

He said an isolated fracture of the capitate in children is very rare and that the two primary causes would be falling or 'a direct blow to that bone'.

Prof Freemont said of the finger fractures: 'They are seen relatively frequently and they are commonly caused by pulling the fingers apart (sideways).'

Regarding the hyoid fracture, he said: 'It depends on the setting but within the setting of neck compression, the hyoid bone is found to be fractured in about 20% of cases.

'The most common cause of these types of fractures is manual strangulation.'

He told the Old Bailey that Sara suffered a disorder known as Gelatinous Transformation of the Bone Marrow, or GMT.

He added: 'When I looked down the microscope, I can see the bone and inside the bone is bone marrow and the bone marrow in this case was unusual.

'There are three common causes (of GMT) - one is infection, then there is also a bone marrow disease called aplastic anaemia where the cells that make blood just disappear and finally starvation or rapid removal of all food.

'It is not prolonged starvation, it is a narrow time frame.

'The middle one I can diagnose because that changes the bone marrow, the infection you sometimes see in and around the bone.

'All I can tell you is that in starvation you see these changes - I cannot tell you they are caused by starvation.'

He told the court there had been a 'very large number of fractures' which seemed to be 'of different ages'.

Prof Freemont added: 'If you find fractures of different ages in different bones, it is highly likely these are non-accidental injuries. These are significant injuries.'

Jurors had yesterday 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 her body in a bunk bed in her home, after a call from Sharif in Pakistan saying he ' beat her up too much' for being 'naughty ', the court has been told.

It is alleged Sara had died two days before and the defendants had booked flights out of the country within hours of her death.

After the killing, Sharif fled to Pakistan with Batool and Malik - leaving Sara's body in the three-bedroom house in Woking.

They were then arrested on September 13 last year at Gatwick Airport, having flown back from Dubai.

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 young girl 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.

Footage has been shown to the court of police storming inside Sara's home just minutes after her father allegedly made a 999 call to confess to killing his daughter.

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 last year. The trial continues.