NSW DNA Testing - Consequences?

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Vic

Member
21 August 2014
1
0
1
My husband has just been told he could possibly have a child who is now 28 years old. The child is asking him for a DNA test. He decided not to do the DNA test and now they are saying that the mother of the child was only 13 at the time and they are going to go to the Police to get them to force him to have the DNA test. He would have been approximately 18 at the time and thought the girl he slept with was 15 or 16. What can they do to him under criminal law if he does do the DNA test and he is the father? Should he do the DNA test voluntarily?
 

CathL

Well-Known Member
19 April 2014
156
36
514
Australia
Hi Kathy,
Its unlikely that the child’s mother would be able to seek child support, see “Can My Mum Get Child Support Back Payments”.
So - is it the child who wants to know who their father is, or the child’s mother who is potentially seeking to bring a statutory r**e charge decades later? (under s66C of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW).)

There’s no limitation period in NSW for serious sex offences. However, it tends to be more difficult for the police to prove the offence beyond reasonable doubt so long after it was alleged to have been committed.