00:00out of those tested one in every three men would not be biological parents of their children
00:09i expected one out of ten possibly even one out of seven but to see one out of three
00:18means we have a critical problem in trinidad and tobago it means father say one two three
00:26i don't even want to see it no it's not mori this is real data from just one dna testing lab right
00:34here in trinidad and tobago and it points to a concerning cotton bag trend of women committing
00:41paternity fraud during the period of january 2020 through september 2025 this particular lab conducted
00:53440 tests on men that were told they were the biological parents of their children
01:03out of those 440 tests we see paternity not being confirmed for as many as 143 men and while the
01:19majority of men seek dna testing for their peace of mind feels notes many do so after being hauled
01:26before the court for child maintenance 29 out of the subtotal of 82 paternity was not confirmed
01:36so that says if those 24 men did not get that test and decided to go to court and say with
01:44eyes my child he don't look like mine yeah he look like mine he would have been placed on a maintenance
01:51order and let's say he was working at salamatal or let's say he was working petrichin or let's say he
01:57was working at one of these places and he was thrown out of his job and could no longer make his
02:03maintenance his child maintenance payment he would have been sent to jail for a child that was never his
02:12yet still maintenance orders continued to be issued with no requirement for dna testing but look at the
02:20number of applications for maintenance from between 2016 to 2021 the applications 6838 and we just had a look
02:33at 82 can you imagine with a ratio of one in every tree how rampant this can be as such fuses calling for
02:47dna testing to be made mandatory for the issuance of child related orders we have reached out to
02:57the attorney general with this information and findings he would have been sent a letter from us
03:05and from the lab we've reached out also to the past chief justice before his resignation he also was
03:13sent a letter from both ourselves and also the lab we have respond we have received responses from both
03:21the attorney general would have even up to yesterday reached out to me and said that he's appalled by
03:28the statistics and most definitely he would like to have a sit down with us and pertaining to crafting
03:35of laws particularly when it comes to paternity fraud he also laments the mental and emotional distress
03:41caused to the men and the children labeling the act borderline criminal i know i have read some now
03:49coming into the works drafting in jamaica i cannot say jamaica has passed it i know they are looking
03:55at some with fine reimbursements and also some minimal jail time as well i think i did read an article
04:02on that but however we are trindar and tobago we need to see what's best for our society we are competent
04:09intelligent not only advocates but even crafters of law that we can do something here to change this
04:16type of behavior to deter this type of behavior renasa cutting tv6 news
