Help with legal matters in story.

[SapphireSeptember]

I really need help with this and appreciate any feedback, I hope we have some legal eagles around.

Basic plot of the story is 15 year old girl is abducted by her older boyfriend and taken to his house in the middle of nowhere, he keeps her in his attic and when she's 17 gives birth to a daughter. Five years later and she manages to escape and get help. Most of my story is what happens next, as she tries to rebuild her life while dealing with what happened to her and how it affected her daughter. But I'm stuck on certain legal bits. The trial was the easy bit!

So, if a child is unknown to the authorities for the first five years of their life, how would their mother register their birth? And would she be able to add the father's name to the birth certificate?

Next thing is child maintenance, kid's father is in prison, would he have to pay it? (He does have a huge inheritance stashed away if that makes any difference, that the kid's mother only found out about after she escaped. She thought he was 'normal'.)

[Crasterwaves]

Not a legal expert but presumably escaped gf could also sue rich guy civilly for damages she incurred from his crimes and take his money that way.

[Crasterwaves]

Court can order adding of true father's name to a birth certificate I think. You could ask a friendly registrar if your local registry office will tell you!

[Crasterwaves]

This covers registering a birth after twelve months

www.hackney.gov.uk/birth-registering

[SapphireSeptember]

I suppose this leads on to kid possibly inheriting said fortune herself, if she doesn't disown her father, (which may or may not happen, I haven't got that far yet.)

Obviously it wasn't the mother's fault she couldn't register her daughter's birth, so in light of exceptional circumstances I'm sure the Registrar General would be understanding.

I actually know a registrar, I'll have to ask her! (She's on holiday at the moment, but I can be patient.)

Thanks Crasterwaves, that's really helpful.