Scream ‘in pain’ alarmed neighbour two days before Sara Sharif died, court heard

Father Urfan Sharif, 42, stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are accused of carrying out a weeks-long campaign of abuse against the 10-year-old girl, culminating in her death on August 8 last year.

Sara’s body was found in a bunkbed at her home in Woking, Surrey, after Sharif alerted police having fled with the family to Pakistan, the Old Bailey has heard.

A dental expert found “probable human bites” to Sara’s left forearm and inner left leg, with Sharif and Malik excluded as the possible biters.

In addition, there was a burn on Sara’s buttock likely inflicted intentionally with a “domestic iron”, scalding to both feet, and signs of restraint with bindings, the court heard.

Last August 11, neighbour Fiona Mellon spoke to officers carrying out house to house inquiries and described hearing a child’s scream about five days before, on August 6.

At the time, she was working on her computer in her kitchen with patio doors open about 4.30pm-5.30pm.

In a statement, she said: “I just heard one scream for a couple of seconds that just stopped suddenly, like a young female voice.

“It did not sound good. This is a quiet area and this is unusual. It seemed like someone in pain and it was so out of the ordinary I wondered to myself whether I should tell someone, like the police.

“I went to the rear patio doors. I did not see anyone and everything was quiet.

“I could not tell where the scream had come from. I did not hear another scream or any other noise so I did not take it any further.”

She added: “Apart from Sara’s family there were no other young children living in the immediate vicinity.

“In the five days before police attended I did not see the family at all which is unusual.”

Ms Mellon said she had only spoken to Sara twice but she seemed like a “spirited and outgoing” girl.

On the surface the Sharifs seemed like a “happy family” but the neighbour noted the mother “needed support”, jurors heard.

Teaching assistant Hayley Holden, who had helped Sara with her spelling, described seeing bruising on her face which led to a referral from the school.

She described Sara as a “bubbly, confident, chatty, engaging child” who would dance, sing and put on a show for her.

In a statement read to the court, Ms Holden said: “She was a little feisty. If she had an opinion she would voice it and she was not afraid to answer back. She never spoke about her home life.”

Some time after Easter 2023, Ms Holden saw what looked like bruising on Sara’s face which looked like “someone had tried to cover it up”.

When the headmistress asked Sara about it, she immediately “shrank back”, pulled her hijab down and would not talk about it, Ms Holden said.

The girl’s reaction convinced Ms Holden something was “wrong” and the school made the appropriate referral, jurors heard.

On another occasion, Sara came into class and “put her arms on the desk and put her head in her arms”, Ms Holden said.

When asked what was wrong, she turned her head away and would not speak but was back to normal half an hour later, the witness said.

The teaching assistant said Sara never confided in her there were any problems at home and was always covered up, apart from her face.

Another neighbour Brenin Lozeron said Sara’s hijab hid her face so that he could only see her eyes which he found “slightly strange”, particularly as no-one else in the family wore Asian dress.

He said he never saw any injuries, but added: “In truth, on Sara you would not know as she was so covered up.”

In his statement read to the court by prosecutor Ben Lloyd, Mr Lozeron said the Sharifs “appeared to be a happy family”.

All three defendants, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, have denied murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16 2022 and August 9 2023.

The Old Bailey trial was adjourned until 2pm on Monday.