Sara Sharif’s neighbours heard screaming, shouting and the use of foul language from the girl’s home in the years before her death, a court has heard.
Beinash Batool, 30, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of murdering Sara alongside the 10-year-old’s father, Urfan Sharif, 42, and uncle, Faisal Malik, 29.
Sara was found dead in a bunkbed at her home in Woking, Surrey, on August 10 last year, after Sharif alerted police from Pakistan, saying he had “beat her up too much”, jurors have heard.
At the trial on Wednesday, a former neighbour told the jury that Batool had slammed a door in her face after going to talk to the family over screaming that had reached “fever pitch”.
Giving evidence from behind a screen, Rebecca Spencer, who lived above the Sharif family’s former flat in West Byfleet, described how she had heard a “kind of thwack” coming from the property on one occasion as well as loud crying and slamming doors.
“The family were never quiet when it came to closing doors. It almost sounded like they were locked in a bedroom, the constant rattling of the door, trying to get it open,” she said.
The rattling noises were frequent and normally heard with Batool screaming, Ms Spencer added.
She said: “I could tell that she (Batool) had lost her temper, there could have been a bang that could have been a smack, I don’t know.”
Emlyn Jones KC asked if she had ever gone to the flat below hers because of the noise. Ms Spencer said: “Yes, on one occasion it was fever pitch so I went downstairs and said ‘Is everything OK in here’?”
Batool replied “Yes” before slamming the door in her face, the witness said.
Asked what noises had prompted her to go downstairs, she replied: “Just general constant screaming, crying.”
Another witness told the court that Batool, who the jury heard had remained at home to care for the children, was heard frequently swearing which was followed by “distressed” screaming.
Asked if she could hear shouting, Chloe Redwin said: “Often you would hear shut the f*** up. You would hear shut the f*** up you b****rd and shut up you c***s.”
A post-mortem examination found Sara had suffered dozens of injuries including “probable human bite marks”, 25 fractures, a traumatic brain injury, an iron burn and scalding from hot water.
Jurors also heard that Ms Redwin noticed Sara had begun wearing a hijab in January 2023, despite no other female members of the family seen wearing one. When she complimented the headscarf to Batool, she told jurors that the conversation had been “shut down in quite an aggressive way”.
She recalled that Batool had responded: “She has decided to wear one, she wants to follow her religion”.
The prosecution are claiming that the hijab was used to cover the extent of Sara’s injuries in the months before her death.
Jurors have heard that Batool and Sharif have blamed each other for Sara’s death.
All three defendants, formerly 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.
