The three judges involved in proceedings relating to Sara Sharif in the years before her death can be named following a Court of Appeal ruling.
Judge Alison Raeside, Judge Peter Nathan and Judge Sally Williams were all involved in family court proceedings related to the 10-year-old between 2013 and 2019.
The last of three sets of proceedings saw Sara placed in the home of her father, Urfan Sharif, and her stepmother, Beinash Batool, who murdered her at the same address in Woking, Surrey, in 2023 and were jailed for life last year.
The press was previously barred from reporting the names of the judges and other professionals involved in the case, with the High Court ruling they “acted within the parameters that law and social work practice set for them.”
However, following an application from journalists, the order was lifted, with the names now available to be published.
It can now be reported that Surrey County Council was involved with the Sharif family for several years before Sara’s death, including beginning care proceedings for her just a week after her birth.
The documents showed that the authority first had contact with Urfan Sharif and Sara’s mother Olga Sharif in 2010, more than two years before Sara was born, and had received “referrals indicative of neglect” relating to Sara’s two older siblings, known only as Z and U.
More to follow…
