Judge refuses DNA test in paternity suit
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Your support makes all the difference.THE HIGH Court refused yesterday to order blood tests to establish who the true father of an eight-month-old baby girl was.
Judge Callman ruled that DNA 'finger-printing', which might show that the girl was illegitimate, would not be in her interests.
A court order had been sought by a man who was having an affair with the girl's mother at the time she became pregnant. He believed the child could be his and wanted proof with a possible view to taking on parental responsibilities. The mother and her husband are satisfied the baby is theirs.
The judge said that the moment the mother realised she was pregnant, she ended the affair and she now objected to any move that could 'disturb the presumption of legitimacy' in respect of her daughter.
He said the interests of the girl were paramount. 'Where a child is conceived and brought up in an existing marriage as a child of the family, and the association of the mother with a man who claims to be the father is terminated well before the birth of the child, the court should decline to exercise its discretion to order a blood test for DNA finger-printing . . .
'This court will not order such finger-printing, against the wishes of the parents who have responsibility for the child, at the behest of a stranger to the marriage to satisfy his own desire to know whether he is the father.'
The people involved in the case were not identified.
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