A man whose businesswoman wife knowingly conceived a child at an IVF clinic using another man’s sperm has been awarded £100,000 in damages, after a judge ruled he had been deceived into thinking the child was his.
The man at the centre of the case – a lecturer – had offered to settle the case against his wife for £12,500.
However, after a trial at the Central London County Court, Judge Deborah Taylor ordered the woman to pay £40,000 damages, as well as paying her ex-husband's legal costs estimated at £60,000.
The child had been conceived at an IVF clinic using the sperm of a former boyfriend of the woman – and her husband was not told of this until the child was five years’ old.
The woman is now in her fifties and the man in his sixties.
The child’s mother told the court she had assumed her former husband had always known that the baby was not his biological son – her child is now nine years’ old.
However, Judge Taylor ruled that there had been “deliberate fraudulent misrepresentation” on the part of the child’s mother.
A lawyer has described the case as possibly the first of its kind.
Duncan Lewis Children Lawyers
Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of specialist children lawyers able to advise on a wide range of parenting and family law matters, including:
• Adoption
• Child abuse
• Care proceedings
• Child contact and residence
• Children taken into Local Authority care
• Co-parenting agreements
• Court of Protection
• Divorce settlements
• Wills and Trusts.
Duncan Lewis advises on family law and child care matters under UK law and Islamic law.
For expert legal advice on family and child care law, call Duncan Lewis children lawyers on 020 7923 4020.