Ten-year-old Sara Sharif suffered injuries which were comparable to a person involved in a car crash, a court has heard. The girl's body, which was found in her family's home in Surrey last year, had signs of healing spinal fractures which had then been rebroken, the Old Bailey was told.

The 10-year-old’s injuries were consistent with ‘significant and repetitive blunt force trauma’ with an ‘instrument’, a court heard

A 10-year-old girl subjected to “brutal abuse” by her father and step-mother before being found dead was forced to wear a hijab to school to hide her bruises, a court has heard.

Sara’s body also had a number of scars from previous injuries, he added. The court previously heard that Sara was hooded, burned and beaten during more than two years of abuse. She had suffered 11 fractures to her spine, burns to her buttocks, caused by a domestic iron, and signs of a traumatic brain injury, the court was told.

Sara Sharif had suffered an “extremely rare” fracture in her neck, which a radiologist said he had “never seen” in a child before. Examinations showed she had an injury to her hyoid bone in her throat,

Sara Sharif showed signs of starvation and had “unusual” injuries, the fourth day of her murder trial has heard. An osteoarticular pathologist told the Old Bailey on Thursday that the 10-year-old’s bone marrow had been “unusual” in his examination of her body,