Murdered Sara Sharif was seen with cuts and bruises months before she was found dead
Sara Sharif, a ten-year-old girl who was discovered dead by police in her home in Woking after her father, his partner and his brother fled the UK, was seen in school with ‘cuts and bruises to her face and neck’, it was reported last night.
A neighbour of the family from when they lived in Byfleet claimed Sara was spotted with the injuries the day before her family withdrew her from school to be homeschooled, the BBC reports.
The family moved shortly afterwards to the property where Sara’s body was discovered with ‘multiple and extensive injuries’, which were so severe a post-mortem examination has been unable to confirm how she died.
Police in Surrey were phoned from Pakistan and alerted to Sara’s plight by her own father, Urfan Sharif, who ran from the scene, taking five children between the ages of one and thirteen with him.
His partner Beinash Batool, 29, and his 28-year-old brother Faisal Mali accompanied the 41-year-old, and the whole family has since disappeared as Pakistan police work to try and trace them.
The neighbour, Jessica, told the BBC: ‘Just before the Easter holidays she was in school and had cuts and bruises on her face and her neck.
‘My daughter had asked what had happened and she said she’d fallen off a bike and then kind of walked away.
‘The next day the teacher announced she had left school and she was being home-schooled.’
It was revealed this week that Sara’s uncle Imran Sharif, who has not been arrested or charged, told police in Pakistan that his niece fell down the stairs during an ‘accident’.
He reportedly told officers: ‘I found out what happened to Sara through the international media.
‘Beinash was home with the children. Sara fell down the stairs and broke her neck. Beinash panicked and phoned Urfan.
‘My parents told me Urfan briefly came home very upset. He kept saying ‘they’ are going to take his children away from him.’
Imran Sharif denied knowing where Urfan and his family were, Jhelum police said.
Today Sara’s heartbroken mother Olga Sharif, 36, reacted angrily to Imran’s claim.
She told the Sun: ‘He could have just made that claim to protect his brother and try to stop questions being asked. I don’t think he is being honest.
‘The only person I want answers from is Urfan. He has to be questioned about what’s happened to my daughter.’ She is hoping to bury Sara in her native Poland. Her comments came as Sara’s heartbroken uncle told MailOnline he was desperate for police to ‘catch the scumbag that killed my niece.’