A BRAIN-damaged baby girl who was cared for by Bolton NHS and was at the centre of a High Court life-support treatment dispute has died, hospital bosses said.

She was born late in 2016 and her mother died giving birth, a judge heard.

Specialists said she had ‘’very serious brain damage’’ and thought that life-support treatment should stop.

But her father wanted doctors to continue providing life-support treatment.

Ms Justice Russell oversaw a preliminary hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London in June.

She had been due to decide whether continued treatment was in the girl’s best interests following a trial scheduled to take place in September.

But a spokesman for the hospital authority with responsibility for care said yesterday that the girl had died. Ms Justice Russell had ruled in June that the girl could not be identified.

The judge said bosses at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust had responsibility for her care.

Lawyers representing the trust had told Ms Justice Russell how the girl had been born with very serious brain damage late in 2016 and how her mother had died giving birth.

They said she had ‘’little if any awareness, other than perhaps of painful stimuli’’.

She had been on artificial ventilation and doctors thought that continued ventilation was not in her best interests.

Lawyers said the girl’s father disagreed and trust bosses wanted a judge to make a decision.