Charlie Gard’s parents have announced their son is beyond medical help (Picture: FeatureWorld)

The Vatican has intervened again in the Charlie Gard case, this time to lament that the baby was not given experimental therapy.

In a statement released today, a Vatican hospital said experimental therapy ‘could have been an opportunity’ to help the terminally ill baby, but it was too late.

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Bambino Gesu Hospital had offered to treat the 11-month-old boy while his parents were trying to persuade the courts to tell Great Ormond Street Hospital in London to release the boy for treatment in the US.

Hospital chiefs said that they are not in a position to know what might have happened six months ago, and cannot know if Charlie would have responded to the experimental therapy.




But hospital director Mariella Enoc told reporters that they had carried out a clinical evaluation and offered medical assistance free of charge.

Doctor Enrico Bertini delivers the statement at a news conference at the Vatican hospital Bambino Gesu (Picture: Reuters)

The Vatican had publicly backed Charlie’s parents in their legal battle to take him abroad for experimental treatment (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)

Their statement comes as Chris Gard and Connie Yates start a fresh legal battle against Great Ormond Street Hospital to be able to take Charlie home to die.

Lawyers representing Chris Gard and Connie Yates said the couple wanted to spend the ‘maximum amount of time they have left with Charlie’.

The baby will turn one year old on August 4, but his parents fear he ‘unfortunately won’t make his first birthday’.

Charlie Gard’s parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard read a statement at the High Court (Picture: Reuters)

Bosses at Great Ormond Street Hospital have not yet said when Charlie’s life support will be turned off, but have previously indicated that they are in ‘no rush’.

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Grant Armstrong, the barrister representing the couple, suggested to Mr Justice Francis that hospital chiefs were placing obstacles in Chris and Connie’s way.

But the judge said that GOSH bosses had indicated that there were practical difficulties, and had suggested a ‘hospice option’ instead.

Charlie is now completely dependent on life support (Picture: PA)

Lawyers acting for GOSH said they had also suggested mediation, but that Charlie’s parents had not wished to use the services of a mediator.

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They also said doctors wanted to avoid hazards or mishaps, and just wanted to ensure that Charlie was safe.

Practicalities were of the ‘greatest importance’, they added, but Charlie’s parents had proposed no clear plan.

They added that GOSH wanted to fulfill Charlie’s parents ‘last desire’, but providing intensive care to Charlie outside of a hospital setting would not be simple.