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A judge ruling on the existence of the twin sons of a separated couple has found evidence to suggest one boy was born – but not to rule on two.
Mrs Justice Arbuthnot was unable to say where the birth would have happened, or where the child or children are now, in an unusual case in which a man had applied to the family court to be able to see his twin sons, who he says were born in February 2021.
His former wife told the court she was never pregnant and that the twins do not exist.
The bizarre case has been revealed in a judgement from a family court judge that was handed down on 3 July but published on Wednesday. The judgement, titled ‘Do any children exist?’, said that the man has produced evidence of the twins’ existence – including Whatsapp messages and photographs of one child and sometimes two.
He produced recordings of conversations where the mother and other witnesses had spoken to him about the children. He also supplied pregnancy ultrasound scans and other documents relating to the babies, the judgement revealed.
In support of the woman’s case, she and a number of witnesses gave evidence that the children were fake. She told the court that the photographs of the children and the ultrasound scans had been doctored by the ex-husband and were not authentic.
She said the ex-husband knew that the twins were not born and was using the court case as an “act of revenge for reporting his father to the authorities as a possible child molester”.
She admitted going along with a deception at the beginning but said that no one was deceived by it. She also admitted lying and saying that she was pregnant and that she had had a termination.
The judgement from Mrs Justice Arbuthnot detailed a fraught relationship between the couple, which was disapproved of by the wife’s family.
It also references an incident in which the heart of a goat or sheep was found on the ex-husband’s parents’ doorstep – “rightly or wrongly, the Respondent [wife] was blamed for this”.
The couple got back together for some months in 2020 before the woman left the man again and it was after this that the pregnancy ruse began.
The ex-husband applied for disclosure of the children’s whereabouts on 11 March 2021 and the matter came before the family court. On at least one occasion the police were ordered to conduct welfare checks on the children.
A search of the England and Wales birth entries was carried out but no newborn could be found under either person’s names.
However, one witness, who was a counsellor, told the court that she had seen the wife with a young child on two occasions. The wife denied ever going to see this person, the judgement said.
Mrs Justice Arbuthnot found that there was strong evidence that there was a pregnancy and “there is some evidence that at least one child was born”. However “there is insufficient evidence to say there were two”.
She continued: “I cannot say where the birth took place but it is likely to have been in a private hospital. I cannot say where the child is currently”.
