A radiologist who examined the body of murdered schoolgirl Sara Sharif claimed her injuries were comparable to “horse kicks”.
The 10-year-old girl suffered at least 25 different bone fractures and 71 external injuries inflicted while she was tortured in the days before her death, the court heard.
Professor Owen Arthurs, consultant pediatric radiologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, discussed the tenth spinal fracture he had discovered in the boy and said: “Spinal fractures (in children) are very rare, even in specialist trauma centres, and They are generally caused by high impacts, traumatic incidents, such as road traffic accidents, falls from heights or kicks from horses.’
The fractures of both scapulae or shoulder blades had been caused by “blunt force trauma.”
His father, taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, his partner Beinash Batool, 30, and his brother, McDonald’s worker Faisal Malik, 29, deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The 10-year-old girl suffered at least 25 different bone fractures and 71 external injuries inflicted on her and was tortured in the days before her death, the court heard today.
Court artist Elizabeth Cook’s drawing of Sarah Sharif’s father Urfan Sharif (right), her uncle Faisal Malik (left) and her stepmother Beinash Batool (centre), sitting alongside dock officers at the Old Bailey in London.
The family home on Hammond Road in Woking, Surrey, where the body of 10-year-old Sara Sharif was found. Sara had been strangled until a bone in her neck was broken up to three months before she died.
An autopsy revealed that Sara had suffered “multiple and extensive injuries” over a “sustained and prolonged” period of time.
He was found to have ten spinal fractures and further fractures to his right collarbone, both shoulder blades, both arms, both hands, three separated fingers, bones near the wrist of each hand, two ribs and the hyoid bone in his neck.
Sara also had severe burns caused by an iron and six bite marks.
After the murder, Sharif fled to Pakistan with Batool and Malik, leaving Sara’s body in the three-bedroom house in Woking.
They were arrested more than a month later, on September 13 last year, at Gatwick Airport, having returned from Dubai.
Sara had probably died on August 8, two days before Urfan called the police.
Giving evidence at The Old Bailey today, Professor Arthurs said: ‘Many fractures can occur accidentally and many fractures can occur from a single event.
‘But my view was that they were very unusual and cannot be explained by an accidental mechanism or by any high-impact traumatic event.
“In my opinion, the most likely explanation for the cluster of injuries is multiple episodes of blunt force trauma inflicted over several weeks.”
Police later charged Sharif, his wife Beinash Batool, 30 (left) and his younger brother Faisal Malik, 29 (right), who lived in the house at the time of the murder.
Ten-year-old Sara Sharif (pictured) had been strangled until a bone in her neck was broken in the weeks before her murder, the Old Bailey has heard.
Sara’s father Urfan Sharif (pictured), 42, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of murdering his daughter, along with Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle Faisal Malik, of 29.
Professor Arthurs spoke of the rarity of some of the fractures Sara suffered, particularly those to both shoulder blades and the hyoid bone.
He said: ‘Scapula fractures are very rare in children, there are big muscles in place and they move too, it’s quite difficult to fracture your scapula in a sports injury or something.
‘These are almost certainly caused by direct blunt trauma to the body.
I can’t think of any accidental way to fracture both scapulars at the same time.
“I have never seen a hyoid fracture in a child, even in those where we have a history of ligature strangulation,” he said.
‘The presence of a hyoid fracture suggests severe neck compression.
“The most likely cause in this case is manual strangulation.”
Once inside the house where Shona was found, an officer was filmed repeatedly shouting, “Police, hello,” before the camera panned to a colleague putting on purple latex gloves.
Professor Anthony Freemont, an osteoarticular pathologist, told the court that Sara’s hyoid bone fracture occurred three months before her death and that the fractures in her left hand were caused approximately two weeks before her death.
Professor Arthurs confirmed a wide range of chronologies relating to Sara’s fractures, including a fracture to the trapezius in her right hand that was less than ten days old.
He told the jury the fractures to his shoulder blades were up to six weeks old.
One of his vertebrae had begun to heal after a fracture, but broke again.
Sara’s ten spinal fractures occurred in less than four weeks, he said.
Sharif, Batool and Malik deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
