JUDGES refused to cut the multi-million-pound pay-out awarded to a 20-year old Bolton man left with the mind of a child due to severe birth injuries.

Lamarieo Manna has the body of a grown man, but the mind of a toddler, due to brain damage sustained during his birth at Manchester's St Mary's Hospital in December 1996.

Lamarieo is able to walk, although with some difficulty, but needs help with many aspects of his daily care, and suffers from epilepsy and profound autism.

He requires 24-hour supervision and a team of two expert carers, London's Civil Appeal Court heard.

And while all those who know him describe him as sociable and charming, he's prone to outbursts which prove intensely challenging to those around him.

Lamarieo, through his dad, Sam Manna, aged 68, claimed damages from the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, alleging negligence.

And the trust later agreed to settle his claim on the basis of 50 percent of its full value.

In a High Court ruling in July 2015, Mrs Justice Cox awarded him enough compensation to cover his lifelong care needs.

The pay-out comprised a seven-figure lump sum, as well as index-linked and tax-free payments of £103,000-a-year to cover the costs of his care for life.

But the case reached London's Appeal Court as the NHS' legal team challenged a key aspect of the damages payout.

This was Mrs Justice Cox's decision to award Lamarieo the costs of securing a specially adapted home for his father to live in.

The judge said he needed that so that they could spend time together properly as father and son.

Mr Manna, from Moss Side, is long divorced from Lamarieo's mum, Marva Cocking, 38, who has since remarried.

But he wanted to be able to accommodate his son for overnight stays as part of a shared parenting arrangement.

The cost of re-housing Mr Manna would be over £368,000, and that was on top of almost £820,000 needed to buy Lamarieo a new "principal home" with his mother.

NHS lawyers had argued that Lamarieo's legal team had painted "too bleak" a picture of his condition, although accepting that he is severely disabled.

But Mrs Justice Cox had highlighted Lamarieo's "profound cognitive impairment" and described him as "an 18-year-old with a toddler's brain".

Dismissing the trust's appeal today, Lord Justice Tomlinson, sitting with Lord Justice Ryder, said Mr Manna had played a full part in his son's upbringing.

And there was no dispute that his current, two-bedroom, home in Moss Side was unsuitable for his son and could not be adapted.

Given the long history of care being shared between the parents, Lamarieo would benefit from his father having a new home, adapted to his needs.