Surrey County Council’s chief executive could be ordered to appear in court after the coroner investigating Sara Sharif’s death accused the authority of months of delays in handing over evidence.

Senior coroner Richard Travers ordered the council to provide 24,606 unredacted documents relating to Sara’s siblings by 4pm on October 2 after it argued that only 660 were relevant to the inquest.

He warned that if the documents were not provided by the deadline, he would require Surrey County Council chief executive Terence Herbert to attend court on October 9 to explain the authority’s position.

Sara was found dead at her family home in Woking in August 2023 after suffering months of abuse, including being beaten, burned and restrained.

Her father Urfan Sharif and stepmother Beinash Batool were convicted of her murder in December 2024, while her uncle Faisal Malik was found guilty of causing or allowing her death.

At the inquest into her death Mr Travers said: “When you’ve got 24,606 pages and you’re told 660 are relevant, that rings alarm bells.”

“That’s a very small percentage. I want all those documents in completely unredacted form.

“It’s my problem if I end up with 24,606 pages. What’s the problem? Why can’t I have them? This is a coroner’s court. I’ve got an inquest to hear. I’ve got to carry that out thoroughly. None of that argument is persuasive at all.”

Alethea Redfern, representing Surrey County Council, argued that releasing all 24,606 documents unredacted risked disclosing information about other children and that the request was “disproportionate” in its scope.

But Mr Travers said it was for the coroner, rather than the council, to determine what was relevant to his investigation.

“I don’t understand on what basis you currently can’t provide the elder siblings’ records,” he said.

“This is a serious position. As far as Surrey County Council is concerned, disclosure has been delayed by months and months and months.

“I will decide what is or is not relevant. It is essential to find out what people knew or what they ought to have known. I don’t understand Surrey County Council’s reticence.”

Rejecting concerns about providing the documents unredacted, Mr Travers added: “There is no risk. It’s disclosure to me. Frankly it’s disrespectful to the court to say that.

“This is going to be an order of the court. Surrey County Council is not doing the court a favour. It is not up to Surrey County Council to decide.

“I will decide what I want to see. I want full disclosure of all those papers to me, for my eyes only at this stage.”

Earlier in the hearing, Miss Redfern requested anonymity for three Surrey County Council employees who are due to give evidence at the inquest.

Referred to as SCC1, SCC2 and SCC3, they are a senior social worker, a senior inclusion officer and an elective home education officer respectively.

Miss Redfern said: “Harm to their health, psychological well-being and private and family life could be exacerbated by being publicly named.”

Two lawyers opposed the anonymity application on open justice grounds, including Ben Gallop, representing the BBC, The Times and The Guardian.

He said: “The starting point is that everyone should be named unless the open justice principle should be outweighed.

“A key concern for us about the order being granted is that it is especially protective against the risk of jigsaw identification, making it almost impossible to report the substance of the evidence and the importance of it.”

Mr Travers said he needed more time to consider the application and did not make a decision at the hearing.

The court was also given a list of interested persons – people and organisations entitled to play an active part in the pre-inquest reviews and inquest.

They are Surrey County Council, Urfan Sharif, Beinash Batool, Faisal Malik, Sara’s mother Olga Domin, St Mary’s CE Primary School and the chief constable of Surrey Police.

The next pre-inquest review was set for November 30, while Mr Travers confirmed the inquest would not take place in April as previously scheduled and said he was now looking at a date in early to mid-October 2027.