Jurors have been shown footage of Sara Sharif dancing at home in a video allegedly taken by her stepmother two days before the 10-year-old died.
A trial at the Old Bailey has heard how the girl suffered dozens of injuries, including burns and human bite marks, in what the prosecution claim was a weeks-long campaign of abuse against her, culminating in her death on 8 August last year.
Father Urfan Sharif, 42, stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are accused of murdering Sara.
A video said to have been taken by Batool was played in court on Monday morning showing Sara dancing at home, which “on the available evidence” appears to have been taken on 6 August last year, the court heard.
This date is being checked by the prosecution.
Batool cried in the dock when the video was played.
Forensic pathologist Dr Nathaniel Cary agreed while he was being cross-examined by Caroline Carberry KC, for Batool, that Sara appears “co-ordinated, alert and smiling at the camera”.
He also agreed her behaviour in the video was “inconsistent with her having sustained a brain injury with associated neurological symptoms at that time”.
Ms Carberry said there was “no dispute” on the part of her client that Sara was “subjected to extensive physical abuse over a period of time”.
Batool and Sharif have blamed each other for the violence in the family home that was inflicted upon Sara, with the third defendant, university student Malik, claiming he was not involved.
Sara’s body was found in a bunk bed at her home in Woking, Surrey, after Sharif alerted police having fled with the family to Pakistan, the Old Bailey has heard.
Last week, jurors were shown a video of the moment that police boarded a plane in Gatwick and detained her family, with her stepmother telling officers: “I think you’re looking for us.”
All three defendants, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, have denied murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between 16 December 2022 and 9 August 2023.
The trial continues.
