A High Court judge has said there should be no more delays in withdrawing life-support treatment for a 5-year-old girl with brain damage. 

Bosses at Evelina Children's Hospital in London, where Pippa Knight is being treated, were in court on Thursday to ask for approval for their plan to withdraw treatment. 

Mr Justice Poole said there should be no further delay, the BBC reports. 

Pippa suffers from acute necrotising encephalopathy and is in a vegetative state. Her mother, Paula Parfitt, has waged a lengthy legal battle against ending treatment.

The 41-year-old, who is Christian, wants to take her daughter home on a portable ventilator so that she can continue to be cared for there.

The courts have consistently ruled in favour of the doctors. In March, the Court of Appeal upheld an earlier ruling by the High Court agreeing that Pippa should be allowed to die.

Last month, the Supreme Court said it would not hear the case.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has been supporting Parfitt in her legal challenge. It believes that continued treatment is not "over-burdensome" for Pippa and that it would be a "tragedy" for her to be allowed to die.