Ten-year-old Sara Sharif died after an alleged “campaign of abuse” in the home she shared with her father, stepmother and uncle.

Here is a timeline of how events unfolded, according to the prosecution.

– April 2023

Father Urfan Sharif informs Sara’s school that she will be home-schooled with immediate effect.

Sara Sharif
Sara Sharif and her family moved to a house in Hammond Road in the Horsell area of Woking in April 2023 (Surrey Police/PA)

– April 6 2023

Sara and her family move to a three-bedroom house in Hammond Road in the Horsell area of Woking.

– August 8 2023

8.38pm – A child sends a WhatsApp message to a school friend labelled “urgent”, saying that Sara had “just passed away”.

9.07pm – Beinash Batool, Sara’s stepmother, calls Southall Travel agency to ask about flights to Pakistan but after 50 minutes the call ends without flights being arranged.

10pm – Sharif contacts Nadeem Riaz, who works for a money transfer business, and says he needs a flight to Pakistan the next day.

Urfan Sharif, left, and Beinash Batool
Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, left, and stepmother Beinash Batool are accused of the 10-year-old’s murder (Surrey Police/PA)

– August 9 2023

9.25am – CCTV captures Sharif and his family arriving at Heathrow Airport to take a flight to Pakistan at 2pm.

– August 10 2023

2.47am – Sharif has arrived in Pakistan and phones police in the UK, saying: “I’ve killed my daughter. I legally punished her, and she died. She was naughty. I beat her up, it wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.”

Police go to the family home in Woking and find Sara’s body in a bed with a note by the pillow in Sharif’s handwriting.

– August 15 2023

A post-mortem examination is undertaken which concludes Sara’s death was not a natural one. There were alleged signs of blunt force trauma inflicted over several weeks, bruises, iron burns to the buttocks, restraint marks and suspected human bite marks, jurors heard.

A person leaves flowers outside a property on Hammond Road in Woking, Surrey, where Sara Sharif was found dead
Floral tributes were left outside a property on Hammond Road, Woking, where Sara’s body was found (Jonathan Brady/PA)

– September 6 2023

Sharif and Batool appear in a short video clip provided to and broadcast by Sky News in which Batool refers to Sara’s death as an “incident”.

– September 13 2023

Sharif, Batool and Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik take a flight into Gatwick and are met by police who arrest them on the plane.

– October 14 2024

The three defendants, of Woking, Surrey, go on trial at the Old Bailey, having denied murder and causing or allowing Sara’s death.