A woman who faked the results of a paternity test to trick her former partner into thinking he was the father of her child has avoided being sentenced to jail.
On Tuesday, Liverpool Crown Court heard that Beth Fernley, 26, told Ryan Hampson she was pregnant in April 2019.
She said she was unsure about who the baby’s father was.
Prosecutor Gareth Roberts said Fernley asked Mr Hampson for £300 towards a DNA test for her unborn baby.
She later sent him screenshots, which she claimed were from the company EasyDNA, that showed there was a 99.9 per cent probability that he was the baby’s father.
Mr Roberts said the documents were later confirmed to have been forged.
Fernley, of Wroxham Road in Warrington, pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation at a hearing in March.
Sentencing her, the honorary recorder of Liverpool, Andrew Menary, said: “This was a particularly dreadful offence which has had a profound effect on many people including, most particularly, Mr Hampson himself and also members of his extended family.”
He added: “Whether it began out of some sort of apprehension because you found yourself pregnant with somebody who wasn’t your partner or because you were keen to create some sort of perfect family it is hard for me to understand.”
He said when police became involved, Fernley continued to deny she had lied in a “perpetuation of sinister dishonesty”.
Giving her a sentence of 13 months, suspended for 18 months, Judge Menary said: “You could not have complained today if I had sent you immediately to prison.”
Mr Roberts said after he was shown the forged DNA results, Mr Hampson bought items for the unborn baby and resumed a relationship with Fernley, with whom he had been for four years before they broke up in early 2019.
He was at the baby’s birth, named on the birth certificate and bought a house with Fernley in 2020.
She later forged another letter which claimed the company had made a mistake and he was not the father, the court heard.
But when Mr Hampson contacted the firm, he was told they had no record of the tests.
He contacted police in July 2022 and Fernley was arrested, Mr Roberts said.
Reading a statement to the court, Mr Hampson, 27, said he had felt “profound grief, confusion and heartbreak” after learning the child, who he had “formed a strong bond” with, was not his.
He said: “My entire world fell apart.
“The emotional pain of people asking me about my daughter is unbearable and it brings waves of grief and sadness back that I can’t control.”
Tom Worsfold, defending, said Fernley had shown insight into the impact of her crime.
He said: “She has demonstrated she accepts it was wrong of her, in her own words, to play God.”
The defendant wiped away a tear at one point during the hearing but showed no other reaction as she was sentenced.
Fernley was ordered to undertake 10 days of rehabilitation activity and do 200 hours of unpaid work.
She was also ordered to pay compensation of £300 and a statutory surcharge.
