In an effort to solve a paternity case in Australia, Victoria Legal Aid’s Child Support Services accused a 15 year-old boy named Trevor Holden of fathering a child in 1994 in a letter sent to the boy. The letter ordered Trevor to either admit that he was the father or send $550 for a DNA test to prove that he wasn’t.

Four other Trevors also received the same letter, one of them is 79 years old. No one believed that he or the boy were actually the father, but the other three men weren’t so lucky. One of the other Trevor Holdens nearly had his marriage end when his wife read the letter and another said his anniversary was ruined by the poorly timed arrival of the letter.

The agency says they are reviewing their processes in cases like this and the lawyer that sent the letter is being “counseled in the strongest possible terms”. One of the processes they should be reviewing is the plan to send a threatening letter to everyone in the phone book with the same name as the accused. D’oh!

The organization has apologized to four of the men but hasn’t been able to locate the fifth, so let’s hope that his wife is emotionally stable.

Source: Herald Sun

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