Daily Mail

CHARLIE JUDGE: I WON’T BE SWAYED BY TWEETS

- By Sam Greenhill Chief Reporter

THE judge in the Charlie Gard case yesterday dismissed tweeted interventi­ons from the Pope and Donald Trump. Mr Justice Francis told the High Court only dramatic new evidence could save the desperatel­y ill 11-month-old.

He challenged Charlie’s parents – Connie Yates and Chris Gard – to provide it within 48 hours.

They want the courts to allow their son to have experiment­al treatment rather than for his life support to be withdrawn. President Trump and Pope Francis have issued dramatic tweets backing the family’s stance.

But the judge insisted he would not be swayed by what has become a vociferous campaign. He said he

would rule ‘not on the basis of tweets or things that are said to the Press but on the basis of clear evidence’.

Charlie’s parents are asking the judge to examine what they say is fresh evidence that new drugs in America could treat their son’s rare genetic condition.

In a bad-tempered hearing, Miss Yates, 31, told him: ‘There is a 10 per cent chance. If that was your child, you would do it. He is our son.’ Her 32-year-old partner accused Great Ormond Street doctors of being ‘liars’. But the hospital poured scorn on the evidence, saying it dated back to 2003.

Mr Justice Francis set a deadline of 2pm tomorrow for the parents to prove their case. He told them: ‘You are going to have to persuade me that something new or dramatic has changed. I am not rerunning the case.’ Charlie’s court-appointed guardian said nothing could repair his severe, irreversib­le brain damage and Great Ormond Street doctors said it was ‘desperatel­y unfair’ to him for the case to drag on.

But in one of several defiant outbursts, Miss Yates told the judge her son was growing stronger and was not brain damaged. She pleaded: ‘Please listen to us.’

Grant Armstrong, a barrister representi­ng the family for free, told the court Charlie responded to his mother’s love, and that when nursing staff were unable to soothe him, she could do so.

The judge did not name Mr Trump or the Pope but his complaint about tweets came after the hospital’s QC reminded him of the White House’s interest in the case.

Mr Trump had tweeted: ‘If we can help little Charlie Gard we would be delighted to do so’. The Pope tweeted: ‘To defend human life, above all when it is wounded by illness, is a duty of love that God entrusts to all’. The Vatican vowed to help Charlie at the papal hospital in Rome.

A radical pro-life American pastor, Patrick Mahoney, has flown to London to deploy his ‘power of prayer’ in Charlie’s cause. And supporters – dubbed ‘Charlie’s Army’ – chanted ‘save Charlie Gard’ and cheered the parents outside court in London.

His parents are desperate to take him to America where a doctor has offered to try an experiment­al therapy. Great Ormond Street medics say this would be hopeless because Charlie is brain damaged, deaf, blind and cannot breathe without a machine – it would be kinder to let him die.

A series of courts has agreed but last week seven internatio­nal scientists came forward to say there was new evidence Charlie could be helped and the case was reopened at the request of the London hospital.

Mr Armstrong told the hearing the seven believed their experiment­al therapy could lead to ‘dramatic clinical improvemen­ts’.

Mr Justice Francis said: ‘There is not a decent person alive who wouldn’t want Charlie to get better, and I understand that the parents will grasp at any opportunit­y of hope.’ But he said he would analyse the facts ‘calmly and fairly’.

He ruled the case will be heard on a full day on Thursday, and ordered a summary of the new evidence be produced by 2pm on Wednesday, spelling out what it was, who said it and what difference it would make.

Miss Yates and her partner live in Bedfont, south-west London.

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