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8 THREE judges who oversaw tragic Sara Sharif’s care proceedings before she was handed over to her killer dad can today be named for the first time after a press freedom win.
HHJ Alison Raeside presided over the majority of hearings, including a final one in 2019 when she decided the little girl should live with Urfan Sharif and step-mum Beinash Batool.
PASara Sharif was murdered by her dad and stepmum[/caption]
HHJ Alison Raeside allowed the youngster to live with the killer
PAUrfan Sharif tortured his daughter[/caption]
Retired judges Sally Williams and Peter Nathan also made an interim care order and emergency protection order respectively.
It comes after The Sun helped win a huge press freedom victory by successfully appealing a ruling which banned us from naming them.
None of the three judges originally asked to be anonymous, but Mr Justice Williams said in a shocking ruling last month that the press could not be trusted with their identities.
Last week, the Court of Appeal said he was wrong to make the ruling and let us name the three for the first time today.
Judge Raeside, who revealed in a podcast she never wanted to do family law originally, was involved in Sara’s care proceedings shortly after she was born.
In 2019, the decision was made that she would live with Sharif and Batool, which birth mum Olga agreed to.
HHJ Nathan made an emergency protection order in November 2014, putting Sara and a sibling in foster care after the sibling was seen with a bite mark in school.
Sara was later found with bite marks when she died.
HHJ Williams made an interim care order in July 2015 putting Sara and a sibling in foster care.
That decision was made after Urfan broke rules by seeing the children unsupervised.
She was later put in mum Olga’s care before moving back to Urfan in 2019.
Olga previously claimed he told a string of lies to social workers to get the little girl back.
Mum-of-four Raeside became a lawyer in 1982. She became a district judge in 2000, was appointed to the circuit bench in 2011, specialising in family law, and from 2019 to 2024 was the designated family judge for Surrey.
Other cases she has been involved in include letting a girl live with her dad in 2020 after she began attacking a “doll daddy”.
And in 2019, a separate dad was jailed for launching a nine-month online stalking campaign against her with a series of threatening messages after she banned him from seeing his child.
15 missed opportunities to save tragic Sara
By Ed Southgate
JANUARY 2013: Sara was made subject to a child protection plan at birth because of Urfan Sharif being accused of attacking three women including her mother, as well as hitting and biting two children.
But she was allowed to remain with her father.
FEBRUARY 22, 2013: A month after Sara was born, social services and police were told that Sharif had slapped a child around the face.
Nothing was done.
MAY 7, 2013: A social worker spotted a burn mark on a child’s leg.
Sharif failed to report the incident and claimed it was a barbecue accident. Nothing was done.
OCTOBER 7, 2013: A child was seen with a burn mark made by a domestic iron.
Sharif told social services the child had bumped into the appliance.
No action was taken.
2013 TO 2014: A child told a social worker that Sharif smashed up a TV and punched Sara’s mother Olga.
NOVEMBER 2014: Sara was taken into foster care after a child told a social worker about a bite mark.
But she later returned to live with her father following a family court hearing in October 2019 where social services recommended Sara lived with her father because that was her preference.
JANUARY 2015: Sharif was reported to social services for waving a knife around at home in what he said was a zombie game.
Social workers noted that Sharif hit and kicked Olga at home and the pair threatened to kill each other.
FEBRUARY 2015: A child told their foster carer that Sharif used to hit them on the bottom with a belt.
In September that year the child was heard to say to Sharif: “When you’re at home you hit and kick me every day.”
2015: Olga told social services about Sharif tightening a belt around her neck.
Around this time social workers complained Sharif was coercive and derogatory towards them.
A male social worker was then appointed to the family.
DECEMBER 2016: A child told a social worker they did not like Sharif because he punched them all over their body and gave them lots of bruises.
Social workers saw Sara flinch when Sharif told her off during supervised contact and seem surprised when he cuddled her.
JUNE 6, 2022: A teacher reported that Sara had a bruise under her eye, using the school’s online child protection monitoring system.
Sara initially would not say what happened, before later saying another child hit her.
But no referral was made to social services.
MARCH 10, 2023: A teacher saw bruises on Sara’s face.
Sara said she had fallen on roller skates.
When she gave a different story to a safeguarding lead, the school made a referral to social services.
Six days later social services decided to take no further action.
It is understood there had been no contact between social services and Sara’s family for four years at this point.
Social services categorised the case as the second highest priority and asked other agencies for information.
When nothing came back, the case was closed.
MARCH 20, 2023: A report was logged on the school’s internal system after Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool was overheard referring to children as “motherf***er, sister f***er, b**** and whore” in the playground.
But no details were passed to social services.
MARCH 28, 2023: Batool claimed a mark on Sara’s face was caused by a pen.
The teacher told the school safeguarding lead.
APRIL 17, 2023: Sharif decided to home-school Sara.
School staff rang the council for advice and were told they should make a referral if there were concerns.
Staff saw Sara later that day at school pick-up and she seemed fine so they decided against it, even though she had been beaten earlier that day.
She made history as the first woman to take maternity leave as a sitting judge, and described the legal profession as “very male oriented” when she started.
Sara Sharif died in August 2023 aged ten after being tortured by her dad and step-mum.
She was found with at least 71 external injuries and 25 healing fractures.
Sharif and Batool were both convicted last month of her murder and sentenced to life.
Uncle Faisal Malik was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child.
What happened to tragic Sara?
Sara’s nightmare began in 2019 when dad Urfan Sharif was handed custody of the schoolgirl – despite abuse allegations being made against him.
Up until that point, she had been living with her mum Olga Domin and was under a child protection plan.
The plan had been in place since Sara was born after Sharif was accused of attacking three women – including Olga.
Once she was in the care of her evil dad, Sara “suffered dreadfully ” in a savage abuse campaign.
She was bound and had her head covered with a hood as agonising punishments were dished out by Sharif.
Sara was also burned with an iron and bitten during the two-year abuse campaign.
Between June 6, 2022, and March 10, 2023, the court heard teachers noted Sara had bruising under her eye on two separate occasions.
The school notified the authorities and a social services referral was made – but officials decided not to intervene just six days later.
On April 17, 2023, Sharif removed Sara from school confirming his daughter would be homeschooled with immediate effect.
The decision proved fatal for defenceless Sara as Sharif was free to ramp up his sadistic abuse away from preying eyes.
This violence reached a fatal head on August 8 when Sara was battered to death with a cricket bat.
Even as she lay dying in Batool’s lap, Sharif had whacked her in the stomach twice for “pretending”.
The following day, Sharif, Batool and Malik fled to Pakistan – leaving the youngster dead in a bunk-bed.
Sharif then called police to say he had beaten Sara “too much” as a punishment for being naughty.
During the trial, it emerged there were many missed opportunities to save Sara during her tragic life.
Concerns were raised about her care within a week of her birth in 2013, with her parents known to social services as early as 2010.
Surrey County Council also raised “significant concerns” that Sara was likely to suffer physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her parents.
This came amid allegations that Sharif was physically abusing her and her siblings.
Despite three sets of family court proceedings, the allegations were never tested, with Sara repeatedly returning to her parents’ care before finally being placed with her killer dad and stepmum.
An independently-led safeguarding review of all professionals who had contact with the family is now underway.
Sharif and Batool were jailed for life with a minimum of 40 years and 33 years respectively after being convicted of murder.
Retired judge Sally Williams was also involved in family care proceedings
Former judge Peter Nathan can now be named
InstagramSara had previously been in mum Olga’s care[/caption] 
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