Hi

I am trying to understand what the legal position might be in the following circumstances.

I am English and living in England, my ex girlfriend is Jamaican with a UK passport. We recently split up and since then I have received a text message which was meant for her friend, not for me. It says that she is pregnant and that she is looking to leave the country, and is not going to tell me that she is pregnant or of the fact that I will be a father. In the text she even makes reference to the fact that she doesn't want me to know.

Before we split there was never any knowledge of a pregnancy or a chance of a pregnancy, which makes me believe that this could be just a trick to mess with me.

Nevertheless, if this was to be happening what rights would I have. Because in theory she could disappear very soon, with my child and I would never be able to track her down or have any rights etc etc. I don't want to ignore this thinking it is a joke in case in years to come someone has tracked me down claiming that I am their father etc.

This is causing me a lot of distress and concern.

I know if the child was born then I would have rights, my worry from what I have researched so far is that I don't have any rights at all, thus this would mean that my worst fears could be realised... surely this cannot be right?

Thanks in advance.

If she up and disappears before the baby is born or before you can go confront her I don't think there is anything you can do if you can't find her and she doesn't name you as the father and go after child support.
You could go to the hospital when she is having the baby if you know when and where and demand a paternity test and your name put on the birth certificate but then I think she could still disappear on you.
You need to maintain contact with her and once the baby is born file for joint custody and visitation and an order for your paying child support and hope she follows through without much of a fight.

There are laws in certain US states that allow a father to file for custody before the child is born. The ruling of the court does not take effect until the child is born.

You should consult a solicitor to determine if there are similar provision in UK law. If there are not, you need to determine if there is anything that will prevent her from leaving the country until custoday and visistation AND support can be established.