A mother whose five-year-old daughter attacked a ‘doll daddy’ has lost custody of her to the child’s father.

The “much loved” little girl, who has always lived with her mother, had been “alienated” from her father by her mother since the couple separated.

The judge said that for almost her entire life, the girl has been the subject of legal proceedings between her parents, centred around her relationship with her father.

For five years the Court, Social workers and psychologists have been “grappling with the problem of why that relationship has been so difficult to establish and maintain”.

Details of the case were heard before Judge Alison Raeside in the Family Division of the High Court in London. Neither the mother, father nor daughter can be identified for legal reasons.

However the family court judge has now approved a plan for the girl, who acts "very aggressively" towards a "doll daddy" when playing, to leave her mother's care and move to live with her father.

The judge said the woman had provided the girl with an "extremely negative" picture of her father.

Judge Raeside has outlined further detail of the case in a written ruling following a private hearing in Surrey.

The judge said that a psychologist had carried out "play therapy" with the girl, and marked that she would play "violent games" directed at a "daddy" doll.

The psychologist reported that she witnessed the girl “in play talking about wanting to destroy or crush” her father.

She would also act “very aggressively towards the 'Doll Daddy' wanting to stamp on him, showing the child and Mummy doll standing on his face, mummy stamping on Daddy”

The judge said the woman and man had initially been at odds over whether the girl should move home.

However, after hearing the evidence from the child psychologist and a social worker, the woman had agreed to the girl moving to live with her father on the third day of a trial.