Paternity Puzzle: Higglers at odds over infant

A hopeful father, who resides in Spanish Town, St Catherine, is willing to accept a baby boy as his own, whether he is the biological father or not.

Austin Baker*, a 42-year-old higgler, said he believes he is the biological father of a three-month-old baby, but is still interested in doing a paternity test to prove it to the child's mother, once and for all.

"It's her (the child's mother), when she leave me, she left me at two months' pregnant, and got involved with this guy," he said.

"I was always in dialogue with her during her pregnancy but, because she was in a relationship, she told him she was two months' pregnant, and she left me out of the picture,"

This report, however, was in direct contrast to what the child's mother, 23-year-old Dana Anderson*, who is also a higgler, had to say.

Anderson resides in Kitson Town, St Catherine, and is of the opinion that Baker is just interested in rekindling a romantic relationship between the two.

"Me tell him say a nuh him a the father, and him say me must keep it as a secret. A nuh the baby, a me him want get back to," she explained.

"Right now, him stressing me and him very ignorant. Everything him talk bout kill, so me nuh really inna it. Even if the baby turn out to be his, my life a go be very hard because I will have to go to him yard every minute, and a that him want."

However, it was pure bliss when the two met sometime ago at the Spanish Town Market. Sadly, things soured. They are now at odds as they seek the truth.

Baker wants the child to be his. He is willing to take care of the child, even if it is revealed that he is not the biological father.

"Well, I would just have to take it like that still," he said. "She knows the child is mine but, really, it's like the guy that she live with, she put the child in his name."

It appears as though Baker is at odds with Anderson's boyfriend. They have had numerous conflicts whenever he attempted to deliver items for the infant.

"The man don't want her take nothing from me for the child," he said. "Right now, me all have feeding in my house for the child."

Baker and Anderson have conflicting opinions regarding resemblance.

"When the child came to my place, and me show my family, them a say, yes, bredda, a your youth this! Them a say mi fi tek care of this youth because a my own," Baker said.

However, Anderson said, "People a say him favour mi other son. Him come up here, and the way him react, everybody knows. Them all start laugh after him."

*Names changed