“Between January 2020 and September 2025, 440 tests were conducted on men who were told they were the biological fathers of their children,” TFATT president, Rhondall Feeles, told a news conference.

“Out of those, 143 men, about 33 per cent, were proven not to be the biological fathers. That means one in every three men tested was not the father of the child they were raising,” he said, adding “can you imagine with a ratio of one in every three, how rampant this can be?”.

Feeles told reporters that there were several instances where men ended up in legal trouble over maintenance for children who were not biologically theirs. He recalled the case of Marlon Thompson, who had to pay TT$35,000 (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) in maintenance for a child, which a DNA test proved was not his biological son.

“We were able to have the maintenance removed, and the magisterial level, the magistrate had no power at all to quash the warrant. Though he no longer had a maintenance to pay, he still had a warrant and faced imprisonment for a child that was not biologically his,” Feeles said, adding that a stay was eventually granted by a High Court Judge, and the matter was quashed about two years later.

Feeles also cited a 2019 case where a 31-year-old man demanded a paternity test after paying alimony for his two children. At the hearing for the maintenance and custody case brought by his wife, the man learnt that the two children were not biologically his.

When asked by the magistrate about the money he had paid, the man said he was more affected by the emotional toll of learning the daughters weren’t his. The magistrate dismissed the wife’s application for maintenance .

Feeles said the majority of men don’t care about the maintenance.

“What they care is that the daughter they held, the son they held, the relationship they held, the one they held, the trust they had in the other party is no longer there.”

The TFATT said it is urging government policymakers to revisit the recommendations of the 2018 Joint Select Committee (JSC), which examined the perceived inequality faced by fathers. That report had called for mandatory DNA testing before maintenance orders are granted by the Family Court.

Feeles said the association recently wrote to Attorney General John Jeremie and then Chief Justice Ivor Archie on the matter.

In the October 7 letter to Jeremie, the TFATT asked for legislation for mandatory paternity testing before issuing child maintenance orders; criminalising a woman’s intentional misleading of a man to believe a child is his, labelling it paternity fraud; and to allow in cases of proven paternity fraud allow compensation for the father, counselling for the father and children, and referring the matter to the police for investigation.

Feeles said while Jeremie expressed interest in the matter, he knew it would take some time for the legislation to be enacted. As such, he asked the Chief Justice in an October 14 letter to issue a proactive direction to require DNA tests for all existing and future maintenance matters and in cases where a man was intentionally lied to about the child being his, allow compensation to him, counselling for him and the children, and to refer the matter to the police for investigation.

An October 17 letter from the Chief Justice Chambers said the matter was receiving consideration. Feeles has since called on newly appointed Chief Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh to continue work on the matter.