Sperm donor fathered 15 children without telling mothers about incurable genetic condition
A SPERM donor fathered 15 children to gay women without telling them he suffers from an incurable genetic condition.
James MacDougall, 37, went ahead with private sperm donations despite knowing he suffered from Fragile X syndrome.
The genetic condition, which is inheritable, leads to low IQ, developmental delay, and cannot be cured.
MacDougall, 37, advertised private donations on social media, knowing his condition would stop him from going through a clinic.
He initially signed an agreement saying he did not want contact with some of the children.
But he then asked the courts to force the women to give him time with four of the tots, aged up to three.
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Three mums opposed Mr MacDougall's response and Mrs Justice Lieven, sitting at Derby, denied him parental responsibility.
And in a highly unusual move, the judge also said Mr MacDougall should be named to stop other women from using him as a sperm donor.
The judge was told how one woman, a 25-year-old named only as SW, contacted MacDougall after seeing his advert online.
Her now three-year-old child, named only as R, was born in October 2018 followed by a second child, named only as P, now two.
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The judge said Mr MacDougall gave her a closely spaced three-page document in highly legalistic language which was difficult to read, stating he would have no rights over the child and no right to contact the child.
The document said, on page three, he had Fragile X syndrome but did not explain what it meant.
SW, who has problems reading and is extremely vulnerable, said she did not read that far into the agreement, the judge said.
After giving birth, SW contacted McDougall who visited his baby daughter often, and she became pregnant with a second child.
McDougall lived at SW's home during lockdown before she asked him to leave in June 2020.
She claimed he made sexual comments to her, rubbed his erection against her, and showered with the toddler at least twice, which she found inappropriate.
SW has not seen McDougall since a serious incident on June 25, 2020 when he was arrested for attacking her and leaving her with bruising on her neck and back, and he has never met P who was born in December 2020.
The three-year-old is not verbal and her behaviour is challenging.
MacDougall is also the sperm donor father of another child, named only as L, who was born in January 2021, and B, a boy who was born in July 2018 just months before he started a relationship with his mum KE.
MacDougall won a court order from a different court allowing him to have regular contact with B, although the child has returned from contact with MacDougall with non-accidental bruises, said Mrs Justice Lieven.
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The judge adjourned the case until she received a report from social services.
She found MacDougall was a complex person, with learning difficulties and on the autistic spectrum, with fixed views, concrete thinking and a profound lack of insight.