Man who paid twins’ child maintenance for 16 years told he was never legally their dad

A man who paid child maintenance for 16 years has been told by a judge he was never legally father to the set of twins.

The teenage twins were conceived using IVF before the man – known only as Mr J – and the twins’ mother started a relationship.

While the mother provided her own eggs for the fertility treatment, the sperm came from a donor, meaning there is no genetic link between the twins and Mr J.

The couple were married when she gave birth to the twins, but they weren’t married when they were conceived.

However, Mr J was named as the father on the twins’ birth certificates – and today Mr Justice Cobb at the London Family Court found his name was added by mistake.

Mr J has paid £240 per month in child maintenance for the twins for the last 16 years, despite having ‘had no contact with the children of any kind since the parties separated more than 15 years ago – no visits, no cards, no letters, no photographs’.

Despite the mother’s protests that her children would be harmed by a ruling that they had ‘no legal father in the world’, Mr Justice Cobb ruled that Mr J had won the right to be legally removed as the twins’ father.

He wanted to stop paying child maintenance, saying he has now retired – but the judge said under the law at the time the twins were conceived, he was not legally their father and should not have been on their birth certificate at all.

Under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, a man who engaged in IVF treatment not involving his own sperm is only legally deemed the parent of any child that results if the IVF takes place at a registered UK clinic.

Giving his ruling, the judge explained: ‘Throughout the whole period, it is agreed that he has maintained them financially…over the last 16 years.

‘Mr J states that he has now retired from working on grounds of ill-health, and cannot continue to pay.

‘Mr J contends that, as he is not the biological father of A and B, his legal status should reflect this.

‘He refers to the lack of relationship with A and B, and observes that his only link with them over the years has been a financial one through his payment of maintenance.

‘Importantly he told me that he had “written off” the money which he had paid to the mother for the children over the last 15 years; he has no wish to recover it. He simply wishes the liability to end at this point.

‘The mother opposes the application, asserting that Mr J had been fully involved in the assisted reproduction process and they had embarked on this course on the basis that he would become the father to A and B.

‘She was concerned about the negative impact on B, in particular, of any declaration that Mr J is not in law her parent, adding that she could not understand “how declaring that [the children] have no legal father in the world is ever in the children’s best interests especially when [B] clearly feels very rejected”.

‘Mr J and the mother were not married at the time of A and B’s conception.

‘The fact that Mr J was erroneously registered as the children’s father on their birth certificates does not itself confer legal parentage on him,’ Mr Justice Cobb concluded.

He went on to make the declaration of non-parentage, despite the mother’s protests, saying: ‘Clarification as to A and B’s legal parentage should promote their true identity…this will, in my judgment, be to their benefit throughout childhood and adulthood.

‘Specifically, the mother will no longer be required to obtain formal consents from Mr J in relation to formal processes such as passport renewal.’

The judge added that both children ‘are obviously bright and engaging young people. They have completed their GCSEs with good results; they are now in secondary education studying for A-levels. They are both aware that they were conceived through donor fertility treatment.’

Expert reports suggested the impact on the children of losing Mr J as their legal father ‘is likely to be…minimal’.

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