Doctors can amputate the ulcerated right foot of a mentally-ill pensioner against his wishes, a judge has ruled.

Specialists said the man would die if his foot was not amputated because infection had set in.

The man, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, said he would rather die than live without his foot.

But Mr Justice Mostyn has concluded that amputation is in the man’s best interests.

The judge said evidence showed that the man lacked the mental capacity to make a decision about amputation.

He said the man, in his 70s, might accept the decision and have a peaceful and “relatively contented” life.

Mr Justice Mostyn oversaw the case at a hearing in the Court of Protection, where issues relating to people who lack the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves are considered, on Thursday.

Bosses at an NHS Trust responsible for the man’s care had asked the judge to rule that amputation was lawful and in the man’s best interests.

The judge, who is based in London and also oversees hearings in the Family Division of the High Court, said the man, who lives in the Midlands, could not be identified in media reports of the case.