Sara Sharif: Court shown video of 10-year-old smiling and dancing 'days before murder'

4 November 2024, 13:08 | Updated: 4 November 2024, 15:30

A video showing Sara Sharif smiling and dancing, which is thought to have been filmed days before her alleged murder, has been shown in court.

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, minicab driver 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 before the rest of the family fled to Pakistan, the court has heard.

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".

Read more from the trial:
Sara Sharif's stepmother 'told sister to delete pics of bruised girl'
Sara 'never smiled once' in months before death
Pictured: Note in which Sara's father admits killing her

Ms Carberry said there was "no dispute" from Batool that Sara was "subjected to extensive physical abuse over a period of time".

The court heard a teenager's bat or a white metal pole, which was part of an extendable leg of a baby's high chair, may have caused some of Sara's injuries.

Her body was found in a bunkbed 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.

(c) Sky News 2024: Sara Sharif: Court shown video of 10-year-old smiling and dancing 'days before murder'