A mother who did not want her daughter’s biological father to be officially recognised has been prosecuted after she sent a friend’s child for a DNA test.

The woman, who cannot be named by court order, was handed a one-year jail term suspended for three years and received the maximum ten-year general interdiction. 

Problems between the couple began when the child, now two years old, was born, leading the woman to register ‘unknown father’ on the birth certificate.

The woman’s former partner instituted proceedings to be recognised as the father. Upon his request a court ordered paternity testing.

The mother attended the appointment with her friend’s child instead of hers, ensuring a disparity in the comparison. Surprised by the result, the father asked the court to order that this DNA result be compared to the mother’s DNA.

The woman then sent her friend instead of her, so the DNA sample would match the tested child’s. However Court expert Marisa Cassar Cassar noted that the two women had different signatures and that the woman who attended the test was not the same woman who had gone with the child the first time around. 

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