A woman has won a legal battle with the Ministry of Defence to prove her fiance fathered their daughter before he was killed in a Taliban bomb blast in Afghanistan, her lawyers said Tuesday.
Emma Hickman, 19, who was engaged to Private Daniel Wade, 20, was fighting to establish the right to name him as the father of Lexie-Mai, who was born in June.
Private Wade, of the 3rd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment, died alongside five other soldiers on the borders of Helmand Province when his armoured vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb in March.
As the couple were not married, Hickman was denied the right to enter Wade as the father on her daughter?s birth certificate following his death.
Hickman, from Warrington, had to fight to get officials from the MoD to release a DNA sample of her dead fiance so she could prove paternity, which now makes her eligible for compensation.
?It has never ever been about the money,? Hickman said. ?It is about Lexie-Mai?s right to know who her father is.
“Dan was so looking forward to being a daddy. He used to carry her scan picture with him under his body armour when he went out on patrol.
“He helped me choose her name and was so proud he was going to be a father.?
Jennifer Roulston, a partner at QualitySolicitors Forshaws Davies Ridgway which represented Hickman, said she was “very grateful” for support from figures including Prime Minister David Cameron in resolving the situation.
“It is appalling that Emma?s trauma at losing her fiance just before the birth of her daughter should be compounded by this legal wrangle to establish her fiance?s paternity,” she said.
“Emma is so relieved she can finally enter his name on her daughter?s birth certificate.?
Fiancee of dead soldier wins paternity case
