Appeal to name Sara Sharif's family court judges

A bid to name the judges involved in Sara Sharif's family court proceedings before she was killed will be heard at the Court of Appeal.

The 10-year-old's father Urfan Sharif, 43, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, were jailed for life for her murder earlier this week.

Following the convictions at the Old Bailey, details from previous family court proceedings could be published relating to Sara's care before her death.

This included that Surrey County Council (SCC) repeatedly raised "significant concerns" that the girl was likely to suffer physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her parents.

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

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.

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

He said the two-day hearing will start on 14 January 2025.

The documents show that SCC first had contact with Sharif and Sara's mother, Olga Domin, 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 included 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.

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 Ms Domin 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 Sharif.

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

The judge described Sara's behaviour as "disturbing", but she was placed back in the care of her parents under supervision.

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".

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 Sharif and Batool, with reports that this followed Sara making accusations of physical abuse by her mother, which were never proved.

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

It was there that she was hooded, burned and beaten during years of abuse before her death.

Sharif was sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in prison for murder, while Batool received a minimum of 33 years.

Sara's uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, was sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment for causing or allowing her death.

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