A High Court judge has described a case as "perplexing" and "unusual" when ruling on whether two children exist in a dispute between a separated couple.
A man brought legal proceedings to have contact with two children who his ex-partner claimed were never born.
He claimed he was the father of twin sons who were living with their mother or her family but she had hidden their birth from doctors.
The man, known as AA for legal reasons, said the woman, referred to as ZZ, told him she was pregnant and had seen a midwife.
She also told him the weight of the babies and said they looked like him after they were born, he said.
But the woman told the court in London she was never pregnant and her former partner had doctored evidence of pregnancy as "revenge" for her reporting one of his family members to the police.
She also claimed he had been controlling and coercive towards her, saying she had lied about being pregnant and having a subsequent termination to "extricate herself" from the relationship.
Mrs Justice Arbuthnot called the case "perplexing" and "unusual", stating she had a "sense of having stumbled into an alternative reality" during proceedings.
She ruled that there was "strong evidence" the woman was previously pregnant and that she "wanted to cover (it) up", deeming there to be "some evidence that at least one child was born".
'Insufficient evidence'
But in a 74-page judgment, she said there was "insufficient evidence" to say the woman gave birth to twins, and that she "cannot say" where the child is currently.
"This is an unusual case because either (AA) or (ZZ) had lied about the pregnancy and the birth of these children for more than three years," she said.
"The lies one of them had told had been complicated, persistent and very well planned and executed."
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The man claimed his ex-partner had given birth to twin boys in February 2021, but the judge said that some of the evidence in the case "points towards the twins' existence and some the other way".
A witness said they saw the woman while she was pregnant and later saw a child with her in a car.
No record of births
But the General Registrar Office, which registers births in England and Wales, found no births registered under either of the pair's family names.
The court heard comments the woman made in recorded conversations and her former partner said she had shown him ultrasound scans, pictures and other documents.
She accepted making the remarks, but her case was "that these were not truthful comments but ones orchestrated and controlled" by her ex-partner, and that "doctored" documents were "not authentic".
The judge accepted that he "had been abusive" but said that while she "was under her ex-partner's control", this "did not necessarily indicate that the twins did not exist".
She also ruled that some of the evidence for the man's claims was "probably forged", including WhatsApp messages he allegedly received about the children.
The woman's GP had no record of pregnancy, but there was evidence to suggest she had contacted a private hospital to enquire about "terminations, pregnancy and childbirth".
The hospital said no twins were born there in February 2021 but the judge found the woman asking for none of her medical records to be stored or shared with the NHS formed part of her efforts to "cover up a pregnancy".
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