A coroner leading the inquest into the death of 10-year-old Sara Sharif has ordered Surrey County Council to disclose over 24,000 documents. Senior coroner Richard Travers instructed the council to provide "all of the pages" by 2 October, stating he would call chief executive Terence Herbert to court if the order was not met.
The pre-inquest review heard that the inquest, originally scheduled for April, will now be pushed back by six months to October 2027. The eight-week inquest is intended to examine what state agencies knew, or ought to have known, about Sara's safety before her murder.
Sara's father, Urfan Sharif, and stepmother, Beinash Batool, were jailed for life in 2024 for her murder. Her uncle, Faisal Malik, was found guilty of causing or allowing Sara's death and jailed for 16 years.
A review into Sara's death previously found that services in Surrey failed to properly investigate why Sara began wearing a hijab, which covered her bruising, due to "fear of causing offence". Concerns about Sara's care were reportedly raised within a week of her birth in 2013, and her parents were known to social services as early as 2010. Surrey County Council has apologised and stated it has taken "robust action" to address earlier findings.