Sara Sharif’s ‘neighbours heard shockingly loud smacking & gut-wrenching screams’ before she was found dead
15 October 2024, 12:30 | Updated: 15 October 2024, 13:30
A "high pitched scream" was heard two days before 10-year-old Sara was killed and her family fled to Pakistan, jurors have been told.
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Taxi driver Urfan Sharif, 42, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of his daughter's murder alongside Sara's stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 29.
Police found Sara's body in a bunk bed in her home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10 last year following a call from Sharif in Pakistan saying he "beat her up too much" for being "naughty", the court has heard.
It is alleged Sara had died two days before following a campaign of abuse and within hours the defendants had booked a flight out of the country.
Neighbours said they heard "shockingly loud" sounds of smacking that were followed by "gut-wrenching screams" coming from the Sharif family home.
Read More: Father of Sara Sharif left note next to 10-year-old girl's body saying ‘I lost it’
Rebecca Spencer said she heard the noises "from the moment" the Sharif family moved into a flat on Eden Grove in West Byfleet in around 2018 to 2019 – hearing what she thought "banging and rattling" sounded like "someone was banging on and pushing at a door" as if trying to open it.
Another neighbour Chloe Redwin, who moved into the neighbouring property on Eden Grove in September 2020, said she heard screams followed by a woman shouting "shut the f*** up" and "go to your room you f****** b******".
Ms Redwin said she heard shouting and screaming at "any time of the day or night", but that she noticed it did not occur when the "father of the household" was at home.
Sara Sharif began to wear a hijab to school to "conceal injuries to her face and head", jurors were told.
Neighbour Chloe Redwin noticed the child had started to wear a hijab in January 2023 which "she thought was unusual as she had never worn one before and her mother did not wear one", prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said.
The court heard that Sara’s primary school noticed a bruise under her left eye in June 2022 as well as a bruise on her chin and a dark mark on her right eye in March 2023.
A post-mortem examination found Sara had suffered dozens of injuries including "probable human bite marks", an iron burn and scalding from hot water.
There was also evidence that she had been restrained, jurors have heard.
Mr Jones KC told the court: "It sounded to her like the scream of someone in pain. As she put it, 'it didn't sound good'."
Jurors heard other neighbours from when the Sharif family lived in West Byfleet and later in Woking had heard screams, smacking and crying.
Rebecca Spencer told of sounds of "banging and rattling" as if someone was trying to get out of a door that would not open, the court heard.
She allegedly told police: "On the occasions that I would hear these banging and rattling sounds, they would often be accompanied by the sounds of a child crying or a screaming, followed by complete silence.
"On those occasions I can only describe the silence as deathly quiet and I cannot even imagine what had happened to make the crying or screaming child become immediately so silent."
Ms Spencer also described bangs from inside the Sharif's flat like someone had been hit or smacked, the court was told.
Mr Emlyn Jones said she considered reporting it to social services but ultimately decided against it.
In March 2020, another neighbour Chloe Redwin allegedly heard children screaming and the mother shouting "shut the f*** up" and "go to your room you f***ing bastard".
She told of loud smacking followed by "gut-wrenching screams" of a young girl and the mother shouting "shut up", jurors were told.
The court heard Sara appeared to have a number of household chores, including taking the bins out each week and hanging up washing.
University student and part-time McDonald's worker Malik moved in in December 2022 and was present when screaming and slapping was going on, according to Ms Redwin.
From last January, Sara began to wear a hijab to school which the court heard was unusual as she had never worn one before and neither did anyone else in the family.
Mr Emlyn Jones suggested: "The fact that Sara began to wear the hijab at around this time is indicative of the need to conceal injuries to her face and head from the outside world."
Jurors heard of concerns about Sara's injuries at her school before she was home schooled last April, four months before her death.
The school recorded Sara had a bruise under her left eye in June 2022 and then in March 2023, a bruise on her chin and a dark mark on her right eye.
The school contacted Children's Single Point of Access for advice, and it was agreed that a referral to social services was needed, Mr Emlyn Jones said.
Sara's teacher Helen Simmons described her as a "happy child", who at times would be "sassy".
When she asked Sara about bruises last March, she gave conflicting explanations and pulled her hijab to hide her face.
Mr Emlyn Jones also told jurors about an "odd detail" in the case - the absence of a Ring doorbell camera at the family home when Sara's body was found.
He told jurors: "It turns out there was a Ring doorbell at the house. There is evidence of it being purchased on July 11 2023.
"What is odd about this is that when the police searched the property, it had been removed. Its bracket is still there, fitted to the exterior by the front door. But you can also see that the device itself had been removed.
"You might want to ask yourselves why that would have been done and what its removal might tell you about the presence of mind of whoever removed it."
The 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 2023.
