{"id":193758,"date":"2024-12-12T12:55:24","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T12:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/12\/questions-to-be-answered-over-sara-sharif-case-pm-says-as-number-of-children-harmed-by-abuse-revealed\/"},"modified":"2024-12-12T12:55:24","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T12:55:24","slug":"questions-to-be-answered-over-sara-sharif-case-pm-says-as-number-of-children-harmed-by-abuse-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/12\/questions-to-be-answered-over-sara-sharif-case-pm-says-as-number-of-children-harmed-by-abuse-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Questions to be answered’ over Sara Sharif case, PM says, as number of children harmed by abuse revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"‘Questions<\/div>


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Sir Keir Starmer says there are “questions to be answered” over the murder of 10-year-old Sara Sharif, as a report reveals hundreds of children\u00a0died or were seriously harmed by abuse in one year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New findings published a day after Sara’s father and stepmother were found guilty of her murder<\/a><\/strong> show more than 480 children in England were affected by “serious incidents” between April 2023 and March 2024.<\/p>\n

One of those children was Sara, who died in August last year after a campaign of abuse.<\/p>\n

Sara had been known to social services throughout her life and her father had faced previous allegations of abuse.<\/p>\n

Her school had referred concerns about bruises on her face to social services five months before her murder, but the case was closed by social workers days later.<\/p>\n

An independent child safeguarding review will now examine whether she was failed by the authorities.<\/p>\n

The prime minister described it as an “awful” case.<\/p>\n

“My first response is a human response. This is just awful case. It’s very hard to see, to read about, for many people who will be viewing, it’s just shocking,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So that’s where I start on this. Obviously, there’s going to be questions that need to be answered in relation to this case.”<\/p>\n

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Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n

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‘Shocking’ Sara Sharif case<\/span>
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In the weeks before her death, Sara was tied up, beaten with a cricket bat, burnt with an iron and even bitten, the Old Bailey heard.<\/p>\n

She suffered more than 70 injuries shortly before she was found dead at her house in Woking, with multiple fractures in 25 locations on her body.<\/p>\n

Asked if the government would ban smacking children in its Children’s Wellbeing Bill, Sir Keir said this case does not have anything to do with smacking.<\/p>\n

“This is about violence. It’s about abuse. It’s about making sure that [there are] protecting safeguards for children, particularly those being home-schooled,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So that’s where I think the questions are. But my response, first and foremost, is just the most awful case that many people, many viewers will find very, very, very hard to hear.”<\/p>\n

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\n \"Sara\n <\/div>
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\n Sara Sharif during reception year. Pic: Surrey Police
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Hundreds of children affected<\/strong><\/p>\n

Data from the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel revealed 485 children died or were seriously harmed by abuse or neglect in the year to March 31 2024.<\/p>\n

Panel chairwoman Annie Hudson reflected on Sara’s “harrowing” case, saying the child protection system must change and calling for multi-agency children teams in local authorities.<\/p>\n

Of the 330 serious incident notifications received by the panel, just under half – 46% – were for children who died.<\/p>\n

More than a third involved babies under one.<\/p>\n

Read more:
Children’s social care system is ‘broken’<\/a>
‘Heartbreaking reminder’ of ‘weaknesses’<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

More than half of incidents involving death or serious harm of a child younger than five involved a parent or relevant adult with a mental health condition.<\/p>\n

And 16% of children died by suicide, according to the report, with 92% of those who took their own lives recorded as having a mental health condition.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sir Keir Starmer says there are “questions to be answered” over the murder of 10-year-old Sara Sharif, as a report reveals hundreds of children\u00a0died or were seriously harmed by abuse in one year.\u00a0 New findings published a day after Sara’s father and stepmother were found guilty of her murder show more than 480 children in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/12\/768x432\/skynews-starmer-sara-sharif_6773981.jpg?20241212110613","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[7679,28829,1287,1388,43848,2644,5896,1978,868,108664],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193758"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193760,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193758\/revisions\/193760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}