DNA tests show 9 babies fathered by same man

The nine infants discovered in a police raid last week at a Bangkok condominium in connection with unauthorised surrogacy were fathered by the same man.

However, a DNA link between them and a Japanese billionaire has yet to be found, assistant national police chief Pol Lt General Jongjate Aojanepong said yesterday. The suspect is still at large.

Fifteen infants are registered as children of Mitsutoki Shigeta, 24, a Japanese businessman, he said.

Four of them, two of whom are twins, have departed the Kingdom holding Thai passports. Of the nine found at the condominium on Soi Lat Phrao 130, six are boys, Jongjate said, adding that further DNA verification was pending to establish who their mothers are and who fathered them.

A police source said later that there were 11 surrogate mothers for the 15 infants, who were delivered at nine hospitals.

They include twins just discovered at a Bangkok hospital where they had recently been delivered, while another infant has been discovered who is possibly a 16th child fathered by Shigeta, through surrogacy by a Thai woman identified merely as "Phaithoon", the source said.

Shigeta left Thailand last week when a second much-heralded surrogacy furore surrounding him was at its height, making it currently impossible to obtain his DNA for verification and paternal checks.

Immigration Police yesterday showed the past four years' travel records for Shigeta. He has entered and left Thailand in a total of 40 trips since 2010, and was accompanied on three of the departures with a total of four children of unknown names and ages.

He was accompanied by one child on May 9, 2013, by one child on March 25 this year, and by two children last Wednesday, according to Immigration Police records.

He last entered Thailand on August 1, with a female with the same surname. The woman left Thailand on August 5 for Phnom Penh, followed by Shigeta for Macau two days later.

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DNA tests show 9 babies fathered by same man