Appeal won to name Sara Sharifâs family court judges
Three judges who oversaw family court proceedings related to the care of Sara Sharif before she was murdered will be named next week, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
Mr Justice Williams ruled in December that the media could not name the judges involved in the historical family court cases related to the 10-year-old, as well as social workers and guardians, due to a âreal riskâ of harm from a âvirtual lynch mobâ.
However, several media organisations, including the BBC, have successfully appealed against the decision, previously telling a hearing that the judges should be named in the interests of transparency.
Saraâs father Urfan Sharif, 43, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, were jailed for life for her murder in Woking in 2023.
At a ruling on Friday, the Court of Appeal ruled that the three unnamed judges could be identified in seven days.
Sir Geoffrey Vos said: âIn the circumstances of this case, the judge had no jurisdiction to anonymise the historic judges either on 9 December 2024 or thereafter.
âHe was wrong to do so.â
Following the convictions at the Old Bailey in December last year, details from previous family court proceedings could be published relating to Saraâs care before her death.
This included that Surrey County Council (SCC) repeatedly raised âsignificant concernsâ about the children returning to Sharif, âgiven the history of allegations of physical abuse of the children and domestic abuse with Mr Sharif as the perpetratorâ.
Documents released to the media showed that SCC first had contact with Sharif and Saraâs mother, Olga Sharif, in 2010 â more than two years before Sara was born â having received âreferrals indicative of neglectâ relating to her two older siblings.
The authority began care proceedings concerning the siblings in January 2013, involving Sara within a week of her birth.
Between 2013 and 2015, several allegations of abuse were made that were never tested in court.
In 2019, a judge approved Sara moving to live with her father in Woking. It was there that she was hooded, burned and beaten during years of abuse before her death.
SCC said the appeal should be allowed.
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