A HIGH Court judge has ruled that a 14-year-old girl taken to hospital after she was found hanging is dead.

The court heard yesterday how the teenager was taken to a hospital in the care of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. 

Doctors had told Mr Justice Francis how tests had confirmed that the teenager was "brain stem dead" three days ago.

But the girl's parents refused to accept that she had died and said they thought there were signs of life.

They asked the judge to let their daughter stay connected to a ventilator, but Mr Justice Francis concluded that the "criteria for death" was met.

He said doctors could lawfully stop providing "ventilatory support" and "all other treatment".

The judge analysed the case at a public hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London on Friday.

He said the girl could not be identified in media reports of the case.

But he said bosses at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust had responsibility for the girl's care and had asked for a declaration that she was dead.

Barrister Michael Mylonas QC, who led the trust's legal team, said cases where judges were asked to declare death were rare but not unheard of.

Mr Mylonas said two consultants had carried out brain stem testing and confirmed that the girl was brain stem dead.

He said for "entirely understandable" reasons the girl's family had found the situation "extremely difficult to process".

Mr Mylonas said in the circumstances hospital bosses wanted declarations that death had occurred and that ventilatory support and all other treatment could be withdrawn.