Council staff refused anonymity for Sara Sharif inquest

A coroner has rejected a request for anonymity made on behalf of three council workers who are expected to give evidence at the inquest into the death of Sara Sharif.

The 10-year-old was found dead in a bunk bed at her family home in Woking, Surrey, in August 2023.

Her father and stepmother – Urfan Sharif and Beinash Batool – were jailed for life in December 2024 after being found guilty of her murder.

At a pre-inquest review hearing last week, Surrey County Council applied to prevent the identities of the workers being reported by the press during the full hearing, but that application was resisted by media organisations, including the BBC.

Concerns were raised about Sara's care within a week of her birth in 2013, and her parents were known to social services as early as 2010, it has been reported.

Surrey County Council workers tried to visit the family home the day before she was murdered but visited the wrong address, a review also found.

It also found that services in Surrey failed to identify that Sara was at risk of abuse and did not question unexplained bruising.

This included a failure to properly investigate why she started wearing a hijab - that covered the bruising - for "fear of causing offence".

Alethea Redfern, representing the council, said anonymity would protect the employees from "harm to their health and private and family lives".

She added there would be a "risk that the employees could no longer work if their identities were revealed", which would be a "loss of valuable resource" to the authority.

Senior coroner Richard Travers said: "I am not satisfied, on the basis of the evidence provided, that granting anonymity is justified by reference to common law principles of fairness."

He said that Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights on respecting private and family life is balanced against Article 10 on the freedom of expression for the media, which Travers added was an "important principle of open justice".

The BBC, Times Media Limited, and Guardian News & Media Limited opposed the anonymity application.

The coroner previously ordered Surrey County Council to disclose 24,606 pages of documents about Sara's case.

Urfan Sharif was jailed for a minimum term of 40 years, while Batool has to serve at least 33 years in custody.

Sara's uncle, Faisal Malik, 31, was found guilty of causing or allowing her death and jailed for 16 years.

Sara died after a campaign of abuse, and a post-mortem examination found she had suffered dozens of injuries.

Surrey County Council has previously said it was "deeply sorry" after the review into Sara's case.

The full inquest is expected in October 2027.

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