According to The Irish Times, a 64-year-old Irish man faces three fraud charges for falsely claiming on a birth certificate that he is the biological father of a child and providing false information when assisting the child in applying for an Irish passport.
Judge Mary Dorgan of the Magistrate's Court in Cork, Ireland, considered this to be a serious matter because it involved three different offences, which took place on three different occasions and in different locations. Since the defendant had no prior criminal record, the judge asked for a probation assessment of his sentence.
In this case, the defendant's lawyer, Pat Horan, revealed to the court that his client admitted to providing false information on July 29, 2009, at the Civil Registry Office on Adelaide Street, Cork, claiming to be the biological father of a 7-month-old boy. In addition, he pleaded guilty to providing false information to the Watercourse Road Police Station in Cork City on the same day and at the Anglesea Street Police Station in Cork City on June 30, 2012, both in connection with the child's passport application.
Detective officer Mark Hennebry pointed out that the child was born in late 2008 to foreign parents who had just arrived in Ireland to study. The father's information was not entered in the hospital records after the child's birth, but the defendant falsely claimed to be the child's father when he came to the Civil Registration Office on July 29, 2009 to register the child's birth certificate.
Hennebry also said that despite knowing that he was not the father of the child, the man made a statement and went to the local police station later that day with an Irish birth certificate to apply for a fake passport for the child. The third charge relates to the subsequent application to renew the child's passport.
Hennebry said the defendant was "fully cooperative" in the investigation and there was no evidence that he benefited financially or otherwise as a result of his actions.
Attorney Horan stated that his client made a complete and frank confession in an interview with **. He alleges that the man voluntarily became the father of the child because he believed that if the child's mother returned to her home country, she would not be able to return to Ireland.
"He felt sorry for this young woman who had a baby," Horan said. He was only thinking about the child. There was no sexual or other relationship between him and the mother. ”
Since this incident was **, his mental health has taken a hard hit. The incident has been haunting him since January last year. He did so out of concern and support for others. Despite the unusual case, he did not benefit from it, and he is deeply sorry for what happened. ”
Judge Dorgan took into account that the man pleaded guilty and did not have any prior criminal record.
"This is obviously very, very serious, with multiple different incidents at different times ......," she saidI will seek a probation report. She then postponed the case until May 1.