Sara Sharif: the court showed a video of a 10-year-old girl smiling and dancing a few days before the murder

A video of Sarah Sharif smiling and dancing is believed to have been taken days before her alleged murder, a court has heard.

Her stepmother Beinash Batul, who is said to have recorded the footage, wept in the dock at the Old Bailey as the short clip was shown to jurors.

Batul stands trial on murder charges SaraMinibus driver father Urfan Sharif and uncle Faisal Malik after a 10-year-old girl was found dead at her home in Woking, Surrey.

Sarah suffered dozens of injuries including bruises, burns, broken bones and bite marks in the weeks before her death on August 8 last year before the rest of the family fled to Pakistan, the court heard.

Prosecutors are checking the date of the video, which “according to available evidence” is believed to have been taken on August 6 last year, jurors were told.

Batool’s barrister Caroline Carberry KC suggested Sarah appeared “composed, alert and smiling for the camera” in the footage.

Forensic pathologist Dr Nathaniel Carey, who was cross-examined, agreed and also found her behavior in the video “not consistent with her having suffered a traumatic brain injury with accompanying neurological symptoms at the time”.

Ms Curberry said Batool “does not dispute” that Sarah “was subject to intense physical abuse over a period of time”.

The court was told that the teenager’s bat or a white metal pole which was part of the high chair’s retractable leg could have caused some of Sarah’s injuries.

Her body was found on a bunk bed after her father called police in the early hours of August 10 and said he had beat her “too much” for “disobedience”, the jury was told.

Batul, 30, Sharif, 42, and Malik, 29, were arrested when they returned to the UK on a flight from Dubai to Gatwick Airport on September 13.

All three deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between December 16, 2022 and August 9 last year.

The trial is ongoing.