It is often described as one of life’s greatest joys – the profound experience of becoming a parent.

But for several men across the UK, it has become irreversibly tainted with inexplicable grief, anger and resentment. 

A growing number of fathers are being subjected to the betrayal of learning that their ‘child’ is, in actual fact, not biologically their own.

They experienced the joy of witnessing their child’s birth, holding back tears as they embraced their treasured newborn for the first time. Over the years, they had poured their hearts and resources into their child’s future.

But then, suspicions slowly start to mount about their relation to the child.

“I recall taking a photo of my child one day, noticing a distinct facial expression. They didn’t resemble their mother or me,” one parent shared.

‘I just thought, “Oh my God.” It was like a lightbulb moment. I just knew I needed to get a DNA test’, emotionally recounts Michael Thompson, 46.

The heartbreaking situation Mr. Thompson experienced is called paternity fraud, which involves deliberately misidentifying a child’s true biological father.

Founder of support network and charity Paternity Fraud UK, Mr Thompson said that he had a relationship with someone ‘who I thought was an amazing, really kind and caring woman’.

But after relations between the pair began to gradually break down, in 2017 he boarded a one-way flight to Berlin with zero plans to return.

Then, the next day his partner, who he said was entirely unaware of his plans to relocate, left him a life-changing phone call: ‘I’m pregnant!’, she declared with joy.

In shock, Mr Thompson boarded a flight back to the UK the next day before returning to the marital home. 

His child, whom he named, was born in 2018. He described it as the ‘happiest day of my life’.

Though the pair split six months later, Mr Thompson insisted that they were able to amicably co-parent.

But over time, he began to develop suspicions about whether he was truly the child’s father. 

At four or five months, he noticed that the child ‘heavily looked like their mother’ and that he ‘could hardly see much of a resemblance to me at all’.

Then, when the child reached the 15-month-old mark, a friend voiced their fears that the child could have a different father while the two were sharing a drink at a local pub. 

Ultimately, Mr Thompson finally felt compelled to do a DNA test to ‘settle his mind’. 

Recounting his decision to take the test in secret, he said: I was convinced the email would come back and tell me that I was the father, and then I would just forget about the whole thing and carry on raising him.

‘But then it came back that I wasn’t the father. My whole world stopped.’

While Mr Thompson said that he had expressed his desire to adopt the child, the mother refused and he later made the difficult decision to cut all contact. 

Mr Thompson emotionally recounts having to take pictures off the walls, slowly remove all the toys, and eventually repaint the nursery.

He said: ‘I see two-year-old children and I still get choked up now, because that was the age of my child. It still affects me to this day, I suffer from flashbacks. Its horrendous.’ 

And, what ‘hurts me more than anything’, Mr Thompson, added, is that the biological father later ‘walked away’ from the young child, leaving them, he claims, fatherless.

He continued: ‘The child is the biggest victim in all of this. They won’t remember me, but there are other children this happens to that have really built up a relationship with this parent. 

‘Then there’s the extended family – my mother, my father, my brother, my nephew, they’ve all lost a family member too.

‘Its completely damaged my relationships and its made me never want to have children again.’

Claire Hampson, 49, has experienced paternity fraud from an entirely different perspective – as a deceived grandmother.  

In 2019, her 26-year-old son Ryan had rekindled his relationship with ex-girlfriend Beth Fernley. 

Though the pair had initially split, Fernley sent Ryan, of Warrington, Cheshire, DNA test results that made it appear that there was a 99.9 per cent chance that he was the father of her unborn baby. 

Reassured by the results, his name was placed on the official birth certificate and for two years he lovingly doted on his precious daughter.

But in 2021, Ms Hampson said Ryan unexpectedly came to her and ‘completely broke down’. Recalling the heartbreaking moment, she tearfully said: ‘He basically just wanted to end his life because he discovered that it wasn’t actually his child after all.

‘It was horrific, our world completely fell apart. He wouldn’t acknowledge that the daughter wasn’t his even though the company had confirmed that everything was fake. 

‘My son was broken because he felt like his whole life had been a complete lie. He would never have gotten back with her if he didn’t think the child was his.’

It was later revealed that Fernley had forged the DNA test results Ryan had received. 

Then, in an attempt to backtrack on her lies, when the child was a toddler she sent Ryan a fake letter from the DNA company claiming that they had made a mistake.

In a state of confusion, Mr Hampson contacted the firm. It was only then that he finally began to realise the inexplicable truth of Fernley’s actions. 

They had zero record of him on their system. It turned out that his beloved daughter was, in actual fact, biologically somebody else’s.

Despite the depths of the deceit, Ms Hampson said that Ryan was still ‘utterly in love’ with the young child and ‘couldn’t bear not having a relationship with her’.

But, much to his dismay, Fernley had introduced the young toddler to her biological father. She later informed Ryan that she ‘no longer saw him as the father and he would now be referred to as Ryan, rather than Dad’.

Having felt ‘pushed out’, Ryan eventually decided, one year on, to stop all contact with the child. Ms Hampson described it as ‘the hardest decision of his life’.

In April, at Liverpool Crown Court, Fernley admitted fraud by false representation but avoided jail – she was sentenced to 13 months in jail, suspended for 18 months.

Fernley was also ordered to undertake 10 days of rehabilitation activity, 200 hours of unpaid work, alongside to pay compensation of £300 and a statutory charge. 

Following the verdict, DC Josh Darby, from Cheshire Police, said: ‘This isn’t just about money, the deceit had real and devastating emotional consequences which are enduring for both the victim and his family.

‘For two years the joy, love and bond of a loving father and grandmother was so strong that the impact of the deceit and betrayal was truly profound.

‘To go to these lengths for financial gain is cruel and calculating. It has left a family grieving and trying to pick up the pieces, while enduring deep sorrow that what they thought was a joyful reality was in fact a wicked lie.’

Ms Hampson said that the family’s ordeal was ‘the most horrendous thing I’ve ever been through’, adding that they have been forced to ‘grieve the loss of a child who is still alive’.

She added: ‘We were reassured that her biological father had regular contact and so we had to make that decision to let go. 

‘But we should never have been put in that situation, we should never have been allowed to bond. 

‘We should have known the truth. It was so unbelievably cruel.’

Now, both Mr Thompson and Ms Hampson are campaigning for a change in the law –  demanding that mothers and fathers be subject to compulsory DNA testing at birth.

The pair, alongside several other campaigners, are set to meet Sarah Hall, Labour MP for Warrington South, to discuss the issue. 

Paternity fraud is not currently considered a crime in England and Wales – but, rather, a civil fraud. 

Figures for the numbers of men across the UK impacted by paternity fraud vary, with a 2018 study from the University of Warwick placing it at three per cent. 

However, Ms Hampson, who believes that many male victims will go unacknowledged due to internal stigma and shame, also notes that such statistics fail to account for affected extended family members.

Adding that they are hoping for paternity fraud to be viewed as a form of abuse, she continued: ‘I’m a big believer in women’s rights, but when it comes to paternity fraud – how are men protected?

‘If there was more of a deterrent, if there was a harsher punishment, or if people were tested, then they really would think twice about doing it in the first place.

‘It should be a form of coercive or controlling behaviour. The ripple effects on a wider family are horrendous.’

A Home Office spokesperson told the Daily Mail: ‘Fraud, and specifically paternity fraud, is a truly terrible crime and those who provide false information on a birth certificate already face a criminal conviction.

‘While there are no plans to change the law to make paternity testing prior to a birth registration mandatory, it is already an offence to willingly provide or make false declarations to a registrar about a birth or death.’