I guess you’d call it a “two night stand”. And a pretty pricey one at that...
I have no knowledge about British paternity suits, but it is probably similar to what we have here.
I prosecuted child support cases in northeastern North Carolina for about 25 years. The general idea is that when a child receives what used to be called AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) that kid assigned his rights with respect to child support against his father to the state who was paying the AFDC to the extent of the AFDC payments.
I sued alleged fathers to establish paternity and for child support. It is amazing how many men who were sued never lifted a finger to contest the proceeding. In most states, when you get sued in civil court and if you do not answer the complaint against you in a timely fashion, the allegations in the complaint are considered to be admitted.
Our statistics were that if a man asked for paternity testing (a blood test until somewhere around 1990 and genetic testing after that) they were excluded as potential fathers about 15% to 25% of the time. We even went so far as to send a note with the complaint that the alleged fathers were entitled to first blood and later genetic testing if they wanted it and that if the court found them to be the father it would be very difficult to get such testing later.
When men actually appeared in court (usually without filing any response to the complaint) we would tell them again that they had the right to have testing done. About half the time these men asked for the testing when they showed up in court and they got tested.
My guess is that this guy should lose in his effort to recoup his money. He almost certainly had a chance to contest paternity. He did not contest it. Probably the money went to reimburse the taxpayers for what they had paid to fund his kid. With minimal effort this guy could have had the paternity issue determined early on. Had he been shown not to be the father, the government could have chased the real father. It is quite likely that the biological father is largely broke or maybe dead. Why should taxpayers have to pay for the screw up this guy made by not asking for testing years ago?
If this guy was worth a damn, he would have take some part in his kid’s life once he was adjudicated to be her father. Apparently he did nothing. To hell with him.