DNA confirms heartbreaking truth - Malcolm is not the father of Baby Jahlani

For months, Harris* insisted that the father of her child could be no one else but Malcolm.

Although she registered the child under another man's name, she dragged Malcolm before the court to force him to take responsibility for the baby.

Both were in a relationship, but when Baby Jahlani* was conceived, Malcolm denied any responsibility.

"When she got pregnant, we were not in a relationship. The relationship did close off fi about a month or two. To the time when the relationship break and the time she told mi [about the pregnancy], there is no way. ...The timeline never add up," he said.

But Harris, determined that the space for a father on her child's birth certificate would not be left blank, asked another man, Paul*, to sign on the dotted lines. He agreed.

That action, coupled with Malcolm's observation that the baby does not resemble him, led him to turn to this newspaper for help.

Swabs were taken, DNA analysis conducted, and the results are in: there is zero chance that Malcolm fathered the child.

But instead of relief, the DNA result left him torn--free from doubt, yet heavy with the thought of a boy growing up fatherless.

"Mi feel good a way and mi nuh feel good a way because that baby a guh end up without a father," Malcolm said after the results were revealed through THE STAR's partnership with Polygenics Consulting.

"To tell the truth, when we did the DNA test is the first time me see the baby that close weh me can say yes me can look pan him. Although them say looks is not really, but looking at the baby, no, is not my child. Him eyelash brown, him hair brown. Mi hair black. So mi did know," he said.

Yet, he insists that he harbours no ill will toward the child.

"In case me see the baby and me can give him something, me will give him because the baby is innocent," he said.

For Harris, the search for the truth is just beginning. She admits to being floored by the results, adding that she now wonders what will happen to her baby if she fails to find the father.

"If me get a next option to do a next free one with the other man, I can do it," she said, clinging to hope.

"Mi really don't know who the father is, that's why mi pushing for the DNA with Paul because this strange," she added.

*Names changed to protect identity