Appeal over naming of Sara Sharif family court judges to be heard in January

A bid to name judges involved in Sara Sharif’s family court proceedings before she was murdered by her father and stepmother will reach the Court of Appeal in January.

Following the convictions of Urfan Sharif and Beinash Batool, details from previous family court proceedings could be published related to the 10-year-old’s care before her death.

This included that Surrey County Council repeatedly raised “significant concerns” that Sara was likely to suffer physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her parents, amid allegations that her father was physically abusing her and her siblings.

Despite three sets of family court proceedings, the allegations were never tested in court, with Sara repeatedly returning to her parents’ care before finally being placed with her father and stepmother, Beinash Batool, at their home in Woking, Surrey, in 2019, where she was murdered in 2023.

Mr Justice Williams, who allowed the reporting from the historic proceedings, ordered that the media could not name the other judges involved.

This decision is now due to be challenged at the Court of Appeal, after a bid for permission to appeal was successfully brought by journalists Louise Tickle and Hannah Summers.

Granting the green light for the appeal, Sir Geoffrey Vos said on Thursday: “The appeal raises questions that are of considerable public importance and it is in the public interest that the Court of Appeal considers them.”

The senior judge said the two-day hearing will start on January 14 2025.

The documents previously disclosed to the media show that Surrey County Council first had contact with Urfan Sharif and Sara’s mother, Olga Sharif, in 2010 – more than two years before Sara was born – having received “referrals indicative of neglect” relating to her two older siblings, known only as Z and U.

This began several years of council involvement with the family which featured allegations of domestic abuse by both parents towards each other and the children.

The authority began the first set of care proceedings in relation to Z and U in January 2013, which then involved Sara within a week of her birth.

Between 2013 and 2015, several more abuse allegations were made, with concerns raised for each of the three children and that the parents did “not fully accept the professional concerns and the need to work cooperatively with agencies”.

In November 2014, after Z was found with an arm injury consistent with an adult bite mark, Sara and her two siblings were taken into police protection, with Olga Sharif arrested and charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and later accepting a caution.

The council applied for the children to be taken into emergency care, telling a family court it had “significant concerns” about the children returning to Urfan Sharif, “given the history of allegations of physical abuse of the children and domestic abuse with Mr Sharif as the perpetrator”.

A judge was told at a hearing that Sara was “observed to stand facing a wall” by carers and “is very small and doesn’t eat a lot”.

The judge described Sara’s behaviour as “disturbing”, but she was again placed back in the care of her parents under supervision.

The situation did not improve, with a court hearing in 2015 told that the authority was “extremely concerned” that Sara and U were “likely to suffer significant emotional and physical harm in their parents’ care”, as both alleged the other was violent.

Despite concerns, Sara was moved to her mother’s sole care under supervision in November 2015, while still having contact with her father, which remained the case until 2019.

She then moved to live with Urfan Sharif and his new partner, Batool, with reports that this followed Sara making accusations of physical abuse by her mother, which were also never proved.

A judge at Guildford Family Court approved the change, with Sara moving to the family home in Woking, Surrey.

It was there that she was subjected to years of abuse, which culminated in her murder in August last year.

On Tuesday, Urfan Sharif and Batool were jailed for life for her murder, with minimum terms of 40 years and 33 years.

Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, who was found guilty of causing or allowing her death, was jailed for 16 years.