Do you think other cases should be reviewed that the judge on the Sara Sharif case made judgment on?

[Wishitsnows]

Reading the horrific background and documents that were submitted to the judge, police and social services that were dismissed and poor little Sara Sharif was then forced to live with her abusers. Do you think that that family court will review cases that the same judge and teams were involved with will be reviewed? I'm thinking that this can't be a one off and there will be other children suffering due to these judgments. If not then it really shows when they say lessons will be learned that it really does mean nothing and they won't.

No.

Depends on the reasons behind their decision, and what evidence they were aware of.

Too easy to scapegoat one person like the judge. Think harder OP.

@Delphigirl why no if evidence has been ignored in this case. There will be others.

But when it’s a choice between a crap unsafe mum, a crap unsafe dad, and foster care (with crap outcomes for most kids), the judge is tossing a coin and will sometimes get unlucky.

Light touch review of the children involved in cases maybe.
Not any kind of full blown public enquiry that rolls on for years.

Not scapegoating the judge. I am thinking all the teams involved. There should be a review and implementation to ensure evidence cannot simply be dismissed and understand why abuse issues were not followed up.

I think all family court judges should be scrutinised and held accountable. Some are a law unto themselves. These are by no means the only ones that have handed children back to their abusers.

@ThinWomansBrain agree, no way not a public enquiry that wastes millions. That is definitely not the right way to go

I'm not sure all judges are as impartial as they're supposed to be as otherwise lawyers/barristers wouldn't feel pleased/disappointed wrt who will be the judge on their case?

Unfortunately this is true

I do think family courts are long overdue for review though

Yes this exactly. There were no good choices. The judge was trying to choose the least worst one. She got it wrong, but you can’t judge difficult decisions with the benefit of hindsight.

Wouldn't a crap mum be better than a proven violent father? They all had access to his evil past but thought a little girl would suddenly be safe with him.

I may be wrong but didnt the dad make false allegations up against the mum and they took them to be true?

There were reports he had assaulted her siblings too but yet awarded custody??

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jan/31/judge-who-returned-sara-sharif-to-care-of-murderer-father-can-be-named

Yes, I do.

I think FC judges often get it wrong but I don’t understand what releasing their names is going to achieve? Apart from an angry mob - it is diverting attention away from the awful people who actually committed the crimes

The report I read suggested she had been removed from mum previously as mum had also bitten her. She was living with mum at one point (court ordered) who then relinquished her back to the care of her father. Honestly this little girl didn’t stand a chance 😔

We don't know what evidence was presented before the judge. Most of this other evidence has come out during the criminal trial.

Every child has a Guardian appointed by the court - usually a very experienced social worker who represents the child. There would also have been the social worker for the local authority. If they were both recommending that the child remain with the father - and this is likely given the decision - then it would be difficult for the judge to order otherwise. We have no idea what anyone said during the care proceedings, they are entirely private, so its too simple to just blame the judge.

agreed.
And it didn't take long for the Foster care bashing to begin either.
Many children thrive in Foster care and some are v damaged when they enter the system so yes have v poor outcomes.
And yes there are some chrap Foster carers of course but in my 20 plus yrs of fostering I have seen v few bad ones. Most hang in there and try to do their v best for the children in their care ( and sometimes this job is made harder by stupid soc services decisions as well ).
When there are violent parents in the mix any child is better off in Foster care .

Actually, the real problem is a lack of experienced social workers. The inexperienced social worker recommended in her report that the child stay with the father. There is a crisis in social work; they qualify and leave after 12 months - much like teachers. So there are very few experienced ones at all. They don't have the skills to make the decisions they are being asked to make. We've had 15 years of underfunding and it doesn't look like this will be changing anytime soon. So the problem here is the system. It's political. There needs to be more funding, better training, and better retention of SWs. They need smaller case loads and more support. This requires money. You can't cut spending on public services and not expect an impact on those services.

It seems the judge has taken into consideration the recommendation of social services.

A judge can only rely on what she’s given as evidence.

Are we going to demand the social workers are named now?

No. There’s no evidence whatsoever the judge made the wrong decision based on the evidence put in front of her. Get back in your box, op. Cheap shot.

agree 100 percent