A nine-year-old girl faces being ostracised by an ultra-orthodox Jewish community after her mother allowed her to eat McDonald's fast food and go to a mixed-sex gymnastics class, a court has heard.

The father of the girl, neither of whom can be named, said that he feared his daughter would be shunned by relatives and friends.

Litigation had started after the girl's mother left her husband and moved away from the ultra-orthodox sect in London, after she became disillusioned and frustrated by the restrictions placed on her.

Sitting in the Family Court, Judge Laura Harris ruled that the girl should stay with her father but spend time with her mother.