Wife claims husband induced her to get pregnant by somebody else

A court has ordered an amendment to the birth certificate of a girl after establishing that the mother's husband was not her natural father.

The court heard how the couple married in 1995 and the girl was born in 1998.

The wife claimed that her husband knew, even before they married, that he had a low sperm count but he had hidden his problem. She said that she and her husband both wanted children and she therefore had a 10-minute fling with an unknown man from whom she became pregnant. She claimed that her husband induced her to get pregnant by somebody else. As soon as the daughter was born, her husband registered her as his daughter.

In his testimony, the husband said that he had discovered that his wife had an extramarital affair, which also produced a boy. A previous court decision had already established that the boy was also not his.

The husband said he had a low sperm count which he had not known about before the marriage, but he denied that this made it impossible for him to father children.

Doctors confirmed to the court that the husband had a low sperm count.

The court said DNA tests confirmed that the girl was not the natural daughter of the husband and it therefore upheld the husband's request to alter her birth certificate.

The court said it had not been proved that the husband encouraged his wife to get pregnant by somebody else. It actually appeared that the woman had an affair because she wanted to.

The court also noted that the doctors had not excluded in an absolute manner that the husband could father a child, although it was very difficult.

That the husband had immediately registered the daughter added weight to the husband's claim that he had been deceived into thinking that the daughter was his, the court said.