Sara Sharif (Image: PA)
Police found the body of Sara Sharif fully clothed under a blanket on a bunk bed, a court heard.
The girl’s father Urfan Sharif, stepmother Beinash Batool and uncle Faisal Malik faced magistrates accused of the murder of the 10-year-old schoolgirl.
They have also been charged with causing or allowing the death of a child.
The defendants left for Pakistan alongside five children on August 9, the day before Sara’s body was discovered. They returned to the UK on Wednesday.
All three were arrested on landing at Gatwick following a flight from Dubai and were later charged.
Prosecutor Amanda Burrows told Guildford magistrates that police were originally alerted by a call from Pakistan, which lasted eight minutes and 34 seconds, at 2.47am on August 10.
Officers arrived at a home in Woking, Surrey, and found Sara on the bottom bunk bed, her head up and her hands lying on her chest.
Ambulance crews pronounced her dead just after 4am.
The court heard forensics officers also attended. Sara was identified using the DNA of her mother Olga Sharif, who lives in Somerset, and another relative.
A postmortem examination later found the youngster had suffered “multiple and extensive injuries” over a “sustained and extended” period of time.
Magistrates were told the cause of death has yet to be established. She died as a result of third-party involvement, the prosecution said. During the 20-minute hearing the defendants, from Woking, spoke only to confirm their names, dates of birth and addresses.
They did not enter any pleas to the two charges. Sharif, 41 – in a grey prison-issue tracksuit – kept his head bowed as Ms Burrows outlined the case.
He, Batool, 29, who wore black, and Malik, 28, in a red T-shirt and blue jeans, were each flanked by a dock officer. Two of the defendants required an Urdu interpreter.
Lawyers for the defendants indicated that they deny the charges and no application for bail was made.
No update was given on the condition of the five children who remain in Pakistan.
Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram remanded the defendants into custody to appear at the Old Bailey on Tuesday.
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