Alfie Evans' parents prepare for new High Court fight

The parents of a 23-month-old boy who has been at the centre of a life-support treatment battle are preparing to return to court.

Tom Evans and Kate James, who are in their 20s and from Liverpool, have lost fights over their son Alfie Evans in the High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.

In February, a High Court judge ruled that doctors at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool could stop treating Alfie against the wishes of his parents.

The couple appealed but failed to overturn Mr Justice Hayden's decision.

Mr Justice Hayden is listed to analyse further issues at a follow-up hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London on Wednesday.

Bosses at a group which fights for Christians' rights say they are helping Alfie's parents.

A spokeswoman for the Christian Legal Centre said a lawyer who represented the group would help the couple at the hearing.

She said barrister Paul Diamond would argue that Alfie's parents had seen their son's condition "improve significantly" since February and would ask the judge to allow an independent neurologist to examine Alfie and provide an up-to-date opinion.

Last week bosses at Alder Hey said they had been unable to reach agreement with Alfie's parents about exactly when treatment should stop.

They said they would ask the judge for "guidance" on the issue.

Judges have heard that Alfie, who was born on May 9 2016, is in a "semi-vegetative state" and has a degenerative neurological condition doctors had not definitively diagnosed.

Mr Justice Hayden had analysed the case at hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London and Liverpool.

Specialists at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool said life-support treatment should stop and Mr Justice Hayden said he accepted medical evidence which showed that further treatment was futile.

Court of Appeal judges upheld his ruling.

Supreme Court justices and European Court of Human Rights judges have refused to intervene.

The couple have complained that "the state" is wrongly interfering with their parental choice.

They want to move Alfie to a hospital in Rome or Germany.