Prolific unregulated sperm donor loses UK legal fight to be named as child’s father

A prolific unregulated sperm donor described in the high court as a “highly dangerous man” has lost a legal fight to be named as the father of a child conceived using his sperm. Robert Albon, who calls himself Joe Donor, was not entitled to be declared the father of a four-year-old child because he was running an illegal sperm donation business, Britain’s most senior family court judge ruled. It is the fourth time he has pursued families who used his sperm to conceive in the courts and comes after a Guardian investigation found he was still selling sperm, despite warnings from family court judges. Albon has sought court orders allowing him access to children in the last three years, including gaining custody of one and changing another’s name. This is despite advertising: “Moms I help can choose no contact and I respect that.” He was given declaration of parentage in one case after he had sex with the mother to donate his sperm, but has never been able to gain access to children. The US citizen, who claims to have fathered 180 children, has appeared on ITV’s This Morning and in a Channel 4 documentary. In previous court hearings he has been accused of targeting vulnerable women, with one left “broken” and “suicidal” after their encounter and another parent describing his involvement as a “nightmare and a horror story”. He was described by family court judges as a man who “lacks empathy and only has superficial relationships with others” and who “seeks to control others to prove that he is right, to secure recognition, to get his own way and to serve his own ends”. While there was no doubt he was the genetic father in this case, Sir Andrew McFarlane, the president of the family division, ruled it was contradictory to public policy for him to be named as a legal parent. The judge also said that based on his previous “reprehensible behaviour”, he did not believe Albon, who initially also applied for parental responsibility and direct contact with the child but dropped those applications, would not try to interfere further with the child at a later date. He said: “I accept that if a declaration were made, the mother would never know when, or if, Mr Albon might once more step forward and that this would be unsettling for her.” Albon was heavily criticised by the child’s court-appointed guardian, whose role it was to advocate for the welfare of the child during proceedings, which were instigated after the breakdown of the relationship between the child’s mother and non-biological father. The guardian described Albon as a “shapeshifter” and a “highly dangerous man” and said she would have “grave concerns” for the child’s welfare if he was given declaration of parentage. The couple first contacted Albon in 2020 and paid £100 for a first unsuccessful donation and £150 in Amazon vouchers for a second, which resulted in pregnancy. The baby was born in autumn 2021, and the last contact the couple had with Albon was to tell him the baby was born, as he had requested. Albon also made an application to remove the name of the non-biological father from the child’s birth certificate. The couple accepted it was a false declaration and reported it to the police, but no further action was taken. The mother’s lawyer, Connie Atkinson, a partner at Kingsley Napley, said the case provided “another important lesson for those considering using a sperm donor to conceive”. “Proper research needs to be undertaken and, if you are not in a position to use a UK licensed clinic (which gives more certainty about legal parentage), advice should be taken about conception and legal parentage and also the likely outcome in the event of a breakdown of any of the relationships involved.”