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A 25-year-old health worker has been jailed after convincing a former lover that a child she was baby-sitting was in fact his son.

Charmaine Leigh Wilson, 25, of Garfield Avenue, Bridgend forged a birth certificate and DNA test results to convince Liam Griffiths he was the father of her child - when the baby actually belonged to her friend.

Wilson was jailed for four months after admitting two charges of making a false document under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981.

The court heard how the defendant had met Liam Griffiths on a night out three-years-ago when he gave her a lift home.

Helen Edwards, prosecuting said Wilson had subsequently terminated a pregnancy following a one night stand between the pair but had become “besotted” with her victim and began bombarding him with messages via text and social media.

Health worker Wilson later met Griffith’s family at Bridgend’s Princess of Wales hospital where the victim’s grandfather was being treated for terminal cancer.

It was there she introduced a child to Liam’s mother, Cathryn Thomas, describing the little boy as her grandchild, to the “complete surprise” of family members.

The court was told how the defendant later created a false birth certificate and results of a DNA test, which Liam Griffiths had provided her a sample for.

Wilson meanwhile, who had been an unpaid child minder for the boy since his birth would regularly visit the family with the child, who they treated as one of their own.

Helen Edwards said: “The grandmother bought the boy clothing and toys and on his second birthday a big party was held.”

She added: “The family decided to build a log cabin in the garden of the family home where Mr Griffiths and his son could live.”

When Griffiths posted a picture of the boy posing in the cabin on Facebook a mutual friend asked the victim “what he was doing with her cousin?”

Helen Edwards said: “The mother then confirmed it was her son.”

In a victim impact statement read out in court, Cathryn Thomas said: “I feel that we have had a family bereavement, having lost a child that I honestly thought was my grandson, who I had bonded with, fallen in love with and spoilt rotten.

“I felt I had missed out on the early part of his life and wanted to make up for the time I had lost as a grandparent.

“The timing of the lie was also a factor as I still haven’t grieved properly for my father, who passed away in February.

“I feel Charmaine took advantage of me and our family at our lowest ebb.

“Finding out the truth of the matter, and that the baby had another name, and that Charmaine had simply borrowed him in passing off as her own has caused me nothing but upset and grief.”

She added: “I haven’t stopped crying for days. I’m still trying to be strong for my son, who has been awful since he found out the child he thought was his own, having had a DNA result, was not.

“He too had bonded terrifically with him, I cannot think of words to say, that a human being could deceive another in this way and cause the hurt and upset is has done to our family.”

In his victim impact statement, Liam Griffiths said: “Everything I see now reminds me of the child I have lost.

“I tried to keep Charmaine on-side and changed my lifestyle for access of the child I thought was my son.

“I’d given up a holiday this summer to work on a home I had planned for me and my son.

“I was in the process of looking for a change of car as I drive a convertible which is not child friendly.

“The only word I can use to describe Charmaine and what she has done is mental.

“I cannot believe she would deceive me in this way.

“I am devastated and heartbroken to have lost a child I thought was my son.

“We fell in love with him from the start.”

Steve Jones, representing the defendant described his client’s actions as a “lie that snowballed out of control” and said the defendant had shown “huge remorse for the pain she had caused” under police interview.

He said that Wilson’s actions had been triggered by the termination of a pregnancy which had left her “heartbroken” and feeling as if she had “lost everything.”

Mr Jones added: “She felt an attachment with Mr Griffiths and wanted to be with him.”

Wilson who has been suspended from her role at Princess of Wales hospital was also issued a restraining order forbidding Wilson from contacting Liam Griffiths or Cathryn Thomas.

Magistrates at Bridgend said her actions had been “calculated over a long period” and added that she had “targeted a family at a vulnerable time.”

Speaking after the hearing, a family member of the child, who did not want to be named, said: “She (the boy’s real mother) had been through a really tough time and had a newborn to take care so her supposed friend was helping with the eldest child.

“She had no idea Wilson was doing this, when she found out she was sickened.

“But the boy is OK, although he keeps asking for his dad, which is absolutely heartbreaking.”