Video of Sara Sharif smiling and dancing 'days before murder' shown to court
4 November 2024, 17:06 | Updated: 4 November 2024, 17:14
A video showing ten-year-old Sara Sharif dancing at her family home days before her alleged murder, has been shown in court.
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Her stepmother Beinash Batool, who is said to have recorded the footage, cried in the dock at the Old Bailey as the short clip was shown to the jury.
Batool is standing trial accused of murder along with Sara's father Urfan Sharif and uncle Faisal Malik after the 10-year-old was found dead at her home in Woking, Surrey.
Sara had suffered dozens of injuries, including bruises, burns, broken bones and bite marks in the weeks leading up to her death on 8 August last year, the jury was told.
Mr Sharif, Ms Batool and Mr Malik travelled to Islamabad, Pakistan, with other family members on 9 August 2023, the day before her body was found, the court was previously told.
Prosecutors are checking the date of the video, which "on the available evidence" appears to have been taken on August 6 last year, the jury was told.
Batool's barrister Caroline Carberry KC suggested Sara appears "co-ordinated, alert and smiling at the camera" in the footage.
Forensic pathologist Dr Nathaniel Cary, who was being cross-examined, agreed and also acknowledged her behaviour in the video was "inconsistent with her having sustained a brain injury with associated neurological symptoms at that time".
Ms Carberry said there was "no dispute" from Batool that Sara was "subjected to extensive physical abuse over a period of time".
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC previously said a bloodstained cricket bat, a rolling pin with Sara’s DNA on it, a metal pole, a belt and rope were found near the family’s outhouse.
Her body was found in a bunk bed after her father called police in the early hours on 10 August saying he had beaten her "too much" for being "naughty", the jury has been told.
Batool, 30, Sharif, 42, and Malik, 29, were arrested when they returned to the UK on a flight from Dubai to Gatwick Airport on 13 September.
All three deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between 16 December 2022 and 9 August last year.
The trial continues.
