'BLUNT FORCE'
Tragic Sara Sharif had fractures to 25 parts of her body which could not be accidental, murder trial was told
Radiologist Prof Owen Arthurs also said some of her fractures were extremely rare
TRAGIC Sara Sharif had fractures to 25 parts of her body which could not be accidental, her murder trial was told yesterday.
They were likely caused by weeks of blunt force trauma, an expert said.
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A broken hyoid bone in the ten-year-old’s neck was likely to have been due to manual strangulation, it was alleged.
Radiologist Prof Owen Arthurs said the fractures could not be explained as an accident.
He said: "Many fractures can occur accidentally and many fractures can occur from a single event.
“But my opinion was that they were very unusual and cannot be explained by accidental mechanisms nor can they be explained by any single high impact trauma event.
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“My opinion for the most likely explanation for the constellation of injuries are multiple episodes of blunt force trauma inflicted over several weeks.”
And he said some of her fractures were extremely rare.
He told jurors: “Scapular fractures are very rare in children.
“There are big muscles in place and it also moves. It is quite difficult to fracture your scapular in a sporting injury or anything like that.
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“These are almost certainly caused by direct blunt force trauma to the body.
“I can’t think of an accidental way whereby you would fracture both scapulars at the same time.
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“I haven’t ever seen a hyoid fracture in a child even in those when we have a history of ligature strangulation.
“Presence of hyoid fracture suggests severe neck compression. The most likely cause here is manual strangulation.”
X-ray images of the different fractures were shown in court and jurors heard estimations of when each injury occurred - ranging from less than 10 days to 12 weeks before Sara’s death.
A post-mortem examination found ten spinal fractures and others to Sara’s collar bone, shoulder blades, both arms, both hands, three fingers, both wrists and two ribs.
Dad Urfan, 42, stepmum Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle Faisal Malik, 29, all of Woking, Surrey, deny murder and causing or allowing a child’s death.
The trial at the Old Bailey continues.
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