Charlie Gard: New scan on sick baby makes for 'sad reading', says Great Ormond Street lawyer

Baby's father yells 'evil' as barrister tells judge what specialists think of fresh scan results

Charlie Gard suffers from a rare genetic condition

Charlie Gard’s parents have been told a new scan on their critically ill son makes for “sad reading” by a lawyer acting for Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Chris Gard, the 11-month-old’s father, yelled “evil”, and mother Connie Yates burst into tears as the barrister told a High Court judge what specialists thought of the fresh scan results.

Baby Charlie is at the centre of an ongoing court battle between the children’s hospital, where he is on life support, and his parents, who want to take him to the US for experimental treatment.

Mr Gard and Ms Yates want their son, who suffers from a rare genetic condition, to receive nucleoside bypass therapy in a trial offered by a professor of neurology in New York.

But doctors caring for Charlie say it is kinder for his life support to be switched off.

News of the scan was announced in court by Katie Gollop QC, as the judge said he would need to know whether there was “new material” that could affect his decision – expected to be made after full-day hearings early next week.

Ms Yates said her and Mr Gard had not yet seen the report.

Mr Justice Francis said Charlie’s parents cannot take him abroad without a court order, despite efforts by US Congress to grant him permanent residency in the country so he can fly there for treatment.

Charlie, who was born on 4 August 2016, has a faulty RRM2B gene, which affects the cells responsible for energy production and respiration, leaving him unable to move or breath without a ventilator.

The judge is scheduled to analyse the latest evidence on Monday and Tuesday following a meeting between Ms Yates and two international experts to discuss the baby’s condition.

Michio Hirano, a specialist at Columbia University in New York who says the experimental treatment has a 10 per cent chance of “clinically meaningful success”, flew to the UK at short notice to examine Charlie.

Lawyers representing Great Ormond Street have said they had “yet to see” any new evidence that the baby should receive the therapy.

Charlie’s parents, who are in their 30s and come from Bedfont, west London, have already lost battles in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in London.

They have also failed to persuade European Court of Human Rights judges to intervene.