A judge in a specialist court has ruled a brain-damaged elderly widow should be allowed to die.

Mr Justice Hayden made the ruling after members of her family became embroiled in a dispute over whether she should continue to be fed by artificial means.

He concluded the woman was in a vegetative state and would not have wanted to carry on living.

The judge said she should be moved to a hospice and given only palliative care.

He analysed evidence at a public trial in the Court of Protection in London, where issues about people who lack the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves are considered, because family members were at odds.

She was being cared for at home by one son who wanted feeding to continue.

Other family members disagreed and said she should be allowed to die.

One relative told the judge how in her youth the woman, a former nurse, had been a "something of a stunner".

The judge heard the family had a photograph in which the woman "looked like" actress Audrey Hepburn.

He ruled the woman could not be identified.

Bosses at NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group began litigation and asked for a decision about her future.

Mr Justice Hayden heard the woman lost consciousness three years ago after falling and suffering a severe head injury.

He was told a year before she suffered the injury she had written down what she would like to happen if she collapsed.

She had said she would not want to be resuscitated.