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,

“In an upstairs bedroom, on a bottom bunk bed, the police found the body of a little girl, lying in bed, under the cover, as if asleep. But she was not asleep. She was dead. Her name was Sara Sharif, and she had been just ten years old when she was killed,” Mr Emlyn-Jones KC said.

A bone marrow disease found in Sara Sharif’s hands could have been caused by “starvation”, a court heard. Injuries to Sara’s wrist and neck bones were shown in court on the fourth day of the 10-year-old girl’s murder trial.