Police 'BLOCK' Alfie Evans' parents bid to take ill son home as protesters swarm hospital
BABY Alfie Evans's parents claimed police officers were preventing them from leaving Alder Hey Children's Hospital with their son - even though they claim to have a legal document saying their child can go home.
A dramatic clip shows baby Alfie's dad Tom trying to leave Alder Hey Children’s Hospital with his son.
Both Mr Evans and another relative used Facebook Live to show what appears to be police officers guarding the doors to Alfie's room.
Mr Evans later showed himself in his son’s room, saying, “So anyone joining in, I’m live in the baby’s room.
"There he is. Look at him. There he is. I’m here now with Alfie James.”
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Pointing the camera towards the machines, he added: “There’s his stats. There’s his numbers. Look what I have in front of me."
He then filmed the lawyer's letter and said: “I have a documentation saying that I have the right to take my son out of…this hospital.”
The words "Christian Legal Centre" can be seen at the top of the letter.
Making an emotional plea from the bedside of his son, who suffer from an undiagnosed brain disease, he later called for people to gather outside the hospital in a "quiet protest" and added: "I'm shaking like a leaf."
Dozens of protesters are now gathering outside the building, waving signs to show their support to Alfie's parents and chanting "let him fight".
Alfie's parents left the hospital at 10.45pm to address the crowd.
Chants of “Alfie, Alfie” sounded out as Tom Evans and Kate James marched among protesters outside Alder Hey’s Children Hospital.
Merseyside Police tweeted: "We can confirm that officers are at Alder Hey to monitor a peaceful protest tonight.
"Please note that access to the hospital is currently being disrupted and protestors are asked to be respectful of other patients and visitors trying to access the location."
The protest is allegedly causing disruption to people who were in the hospital when the the gathering started taking place.
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Zanna Natalie Kelly claimed one of her children to sleep on the ward after entrances to the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital were locked.
She wrote on Facebook: “We are stuck in Alder Hey unable to get back to the Ronald MacDonald building because of this protest.“Many of the entrances are now locked. I have a very sick child on one of the wards and cannot take my older child back to the RonMac to go to bed, so she’s having to sleep on the ward!
“I totally believe the Evans family have been treated appallingly and Alfie should be allowed to go home to have some dignity, but this protest isn’t helping!
“This is a children’s hospital! It should be a place of safety but there are fireworks going off outside in protest.
“Do these protestors not realise there are children on these wards unable to sleep and are feeling anxious?”
The emotional scenes come the day after a judge set the date and time for the child's life support to be switched off.
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Mr Justice Hayden said he had endorsed the care plan brought forward by the Liverpool hospital, setting out the provisions for the end of Alfie's life.
He added that the child's brain had been so corrupted by mitochondrial disease that his life was "futile".
The ruling arrived a month after the same judge ruled that it was in Alfie's best interests for his treatment to be withdrawn, decision later upheld by the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
But Alder Hey returned to court, saying it was unable to agree an end of life plan with parents Tom Evans, 21, and Kate James, 20
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The judge said he had no doubt Alfie was "much loved" by his parents.
But it was seven weeks since he had declared his situation to be against Alfie's best interests and the parents - Mr Evans particularly - had not engaged with the care plan.
Alfie's parents had claimed the UK was interfering with their parental choice and had tried to move their son to a hospital in Germany or Rome.