John Banks could eliminate himself from a bombshell paternity claim for as little as $699.
That’s the cost of a legal DNA test conducted by an accredited lab and usable as evidence in a court of law.
The former Cabinet minister and two-time Auckland mayor faces a High Court paternity claim from 47-year-old Antony Shaw.
The English language teacher says he is Banks‘ son and is asking a judge to declare that the former policeman is his birth father.
A full paternity action could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and drag on for months or even years.
The DNA test results, taken from a non-invasive mouth swab sample, could be emailed or posted to Banks in just five days.
The test would conclusively eliminate Banks as Shaw’s blood relative if it showed a negative result, or prove paternity to an extremely high scientific threshold should it produce a DNA match.
„If you have the mother, it’s one-in-a-billion,“ DNA Solutions director Vernon Muir told the Herald.
„If you don’t have the mother it’s in the hundreds of thousands, so it’s still incredibly accurate.“
Banks did not appear today when the case had its first call in the High Court at Auckland.
Quelle: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11876879
