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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To just be appalled a pregnant woman has been jailed over this ?

153 replies

Sootyandsweep2019 · 18/09/2019 20:38

Yes, ammend the certificate to be factually accurate. But I am genuinely scared and appalled the CPS felt this was in the public interest to prosecute here. I mean, are they going to knock on the door of all Jeremy Kyle guests in a similar situation ? And there are many other cases where I'm just aghast a prosecution was thought to be in the public interest.

There are also women, who will protect a child by having someone else register as the father to keep a domestic abuser out if a child's life, I think we have a real, real authoratitive problem in this country as I could not trust any authorities that thought this was okay ( Daily mail story about mother jailed for naming the wrong man on birth certificate , trying to link but struggling on phone)

OP posts:
StCharlotte · 18/09/2019 20:42

Don't bother linking to the DM (although it means I might get the wrong end of the stick of course.). But couldn't she have left the father blank?

Windygate · 18/09/2019 20:46

I think it's one thing to put 'father unknown' or leave the space blank but to get another man to agree to fraudulently present as the father is something else. The woman did it to spite the father not to protect the child. She has done a massive disservice to women dealing with abuse.

BeepBeeep · 18/09/2019 20:47

There are warnings about the penalties for wilfully giving the wrong information OP.
She chose to ignore them and risk the punishment.
She got caught and was punished accordingly.

PinkiOcelot · 18/09/2019 20:47

What?

ariamontgomery · 18/09/2019 20:47

It’s never okay to register someone who isn’t the father as the father. If necessary it should be left blank.

Dyrne · 18/09/2019 20:48

I would assume that there are major complicating factors that we’re not aware of, to get 8 months. It says that Social Services were involved, for one; and I would imagine that if she’d held up her hands at the time and said “OK, I wasn’t sure, thought it was X but turns out it’s Y” then t wouldn’t have got to court. If she continued to lie then that was what probably pushed it into the ‘Fraud’ category.

Women still commit crimes whilst pregnant, they should be held accountable.

StCharlotte · 18/09/2019 20:48

I've read the story now and as she did it out of spite, I have no sympathy - there was no protection issue. Surely everyone knows you don't fuck about with official stuff like birth certificates.

Fullyhuman · 18/09/2019 20:49

How is it the mother’s crime? You have to be married to the dad to put them down without them being there; if not married he has to go with you. So it’s him that commits the crime, isn’t it?

Farahilda · 18/09/2019 20:50

I can't find this story at all via google - not DM nor anywhere else.

I am wondering how complete the reporting was - because normally this offence would not result jail

AllFourOfThem · 18/09/2019 20:52

Yabu. She did it out of spite and it’s a legal documentation.

randomchap · 18/09/2019 20:55

The story is missing all the detail. YABU to assume that a DM story is giving a fair and unbalanced view of the news. Gutter journalism

Northernlurker · 18/09/2019 20:58

It seems detailed enough to me. It was a deliberate fraud. Prison is an appropriate deterrent.

Lying about your child's father is also terrible parenting.

Hahaha88 · 18/09/2019 20:58

Urgh. They sound like lovely people. So glad they are reproducing

Tilltheendoftheline · 18/09/2019 21:00

I am really appalled that people think that putting a different man on their childs birth certificate, isnt a big deal. Not only is it an awful thing to do to the father, its inexcusable to do to your child.

It really is. And in all likelihood, she probably got pregnant thinking it would help her avoid jail. I have know several cases where women have done this.

She clearly doesnt have her childs best interests at heart. She is a person who thinks a child is her possession to do what she wants with.

AuntieStella · 18/09/2019 21:00

Yes, randomchap not least omitting that the man (who also made a false declaration out of deliberate spite) was also jailed

Nothing like a bit of gratuitous mother-bashing

Original poster
Sootyandsweep2019 · 18/09/2019 21:01

This I a thin end of the wedge....so a woman I taped on the way home from work by a stranger whilst her husband is on away on a business trip. She becomes pregnant, tells her husband what's happened, and they agree to raise the baby as his. She would also be committing the same crime....

OP posts:
Tilltheendoftheline · 18/09/2019 21:02

That's totally different circumstances.

Not even vaguely similar

Why are you comparing it to decisions made after a rape?

Northernlurker · 18/09/2019 21:04

Yes she would. It's still a crime. However fluffy you think the people are.
Simply tell the truth or don't name a father. Both legal. Lying, not legal. It's really not hard to grasp.

Original poster
Sootyandsweep2019 · 18/09/2019 21:05

I am really surprised that mumsnet, which is meant to be feminist, approves this. Yes the record could have been corrected; but this leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. And yet men who download some of the most vile abuse of children are routinely spared jail.

OP posts:
Original poster
Sootyandsweep2019 · 18/09/2019 21:07

Northernlurker - im aware it's ileagal, just asking if this prosecution I'd in the public interest ? Do you think this is a good use kf taxpayers money

OP posts:
Tilltheendoftheline · 18/09/2019 21:07

I would imagine in the case of a rape, if the father came forward (not likely) the circumstances would mean sentencing was very different.

But yes its still fraud. Ita really not ok to pead your child to believe someone is their biological father when it isnt. This can cause lots of trauma for kids and adults, if the truth comes out.

eladen · 18/09/2019 21:09

Isn't there a public interest test in deciding whether to prosecute? I can't see a prosecution happening for your hypothetical.

If a rape victim is ever prosecuted in the same way I expect most people would strongly object. But that isn't what's happened.

This case doesn't set any precedents if that's what angers you. It was already the law. Nothing has changed.

The fact that victims of abuse are failed, retraumatised and revictimised by our systems and society at large is a separate issue.

Tennesseewhiskey · 18/09/2019 21:09

Yes, it's in the public interest.

It's also in the interest of the victims that the crime is punished. The victims being the child and the father.

Being a feminist, does not mean that you agree with everything what women do or apply the 'well would it be a crime if they were raped' argument to everything.

Kungfupanda67 · 18/09/2019 21:09

This isn’t a feminist issue. Women can’t just change who the father of their child is because they changed their mind after the fact. Even in the case of abuse, leave it blank - you can’t put someone else’s name on a legal document

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