Disturbing messages serial sperm donor with 180 children sent to control woman

An unregulated sperm donor who boasts of fathering more than 180 children has lost a custody battle with a woman who said she was left feeling suicidal following their encounter.

Robert Albon, 54, who advertises his services on social media under the name ‘Joe Donor’, applied to the family court for increased contact or placement in respect of two children.

He was named by a judge earlier this year to warn of the dangers of unregulated sperm donation.

Originally from the US, Albon started acting as an unregulated sperm donor in 2013 and came to England in 2020.

At a hearing in March, the family court in Middlesbrough considered arrangements for a girl born in early 2023, known as CA, born after her mother contacted him to be a donor.

The local authority in the case and the child’s mother supported limited indirect contact with Mr Albon, while he opposed the proposals and asked a judge to give him parental responsibility for the child, as well as either face-to-face contact or more extensive indirect contact.

The court also heard the case of a girl fathered by Mr Albon, who was born in 2022 and known as CB.

After the mother contacted him on Facebook, he asked the woman to send a selfie before agreeing to travel 250 miles to her home for sex that same day.

She already had seven children, two of whom were still living with her.

Subsequent text messages show the woman told Mr Albon: ‘Have done an awful lot of thinking about how you have treated me.

‘I can’t eat. I actually came within minutes of ending my life this morning. It was my 17 yr old that stopped me. I cannot carry on any longer. You have truly broken me.’

This local authority, in the north east of England, asked for a care order with indirect contact after adoption or long-term fostering, while Mr Albon asked for her to be placed in his care.

In a 51-page judgment published on Wednesday, Mr Justice Poole refused Mr Albon’s bids for increased contact or placement.

The High Court judge said women who use Mr Albon as a sperm donor are mostly single women or in same-sex relationships, adding it appeared that a high proportion of women in the UK who used his services are ‘vulnerable in one way or another’.

Mr Albon told the court he charges £100 to deliver his sperm by post, after putting his semen into a syringe and packaging it with frozen tomato puree, to keep it at a suitable temperature, before sending the parcel.

Mr Justice Poole said Mr Albon uses light-hearted terms while advertising his services online, including referring to his semen as ‘Joe’s Juice’ or ‘baby batter’.

The children in the two cases were conceived through sexual intercourse, described as ‘natural insemination’, the court was told.

The judge said: ‘The evidence before the court shows that Mr Albon will have sex with, or provide his sperm for artificial insemination, to just about anyone who asks.’

He warned the risks of using the prolific unregulated sperm donor are obvious, including the risk of Mr Albon seeking parental responsibility or other court orders, as well as unknown potential health issues.

In his ruling, Mr Justice Poole said Mr Albon is ‘ambiguous’ about his future involvement when he is first contacted by the potential mothers, giving him the ability to decide at a later date whether or not to become involved.

‘The evidence suggests that his practice as a sperm donor attracts a high number of vulnerable women,’ the judge said. ‘These are women whom he can seek to control.’

The judge found that Mr Albon had tried to control five of the six women in England and Wales known to have carried his biological children, including using litigation as a way of control.

He said he was sure ‘part of Mr Albon’s motivation in applying to have parental responsibility for and contact with CA, and care of CB, is to secure his immigration status’, adding: ‘To show a subsisting family life it is insufficient for him merely to have sired children living here.

‘He needs to establish a parental or familial relationship with them.

‘I am also sure that he enjoys having sexual intercourse with lots of different women. He has not denied that it is something he enjoys.

‘But he also has a more profound, psychological need to be validated, recognised, and to assert himself over others and he seizes opportunities to do this when it suits him.’

The ruling continued: ‘As a sperm donor perhaps it is not surprising that Mr Albon has no interest in the lives of the great majority of his donor-conceived children. The conundrum is why he takes a particular interest in a handful of his children, including CA and CB.

‘The answer is that he will seize opportunities from his sperm donor activities to gain a reward for himself – whether it is having sex with women, helping his immigration status, providing a roof over his head, or allowing him to exercise control and gain recognition.’

The judge said that CB can be adopted, finding that placing CB with Mr Albon would not be in her best interests and that there was a ‘substantial risk’ she would be cast aside.

He said: ‘His only friends appear to be fellow unregulated sperm donors. That is his world.’

Mr Justice Poole also found that while Mr Albon can be declared as CA’s father on a re-registered birth certificate, he refused the bid to grant the donor parental responsibility or increased contact.

‘I have no confidence that Mr Albon would commit to contact and find it likely that he would move on to another family when it suited him, as he has done previously,’ the judge said.

Mr Albon will be allowed to send a letter or card once a year to CA, to be passed on once CA’s mother thinks it is appropriate.

Mr Justice Poole also ordered that a copy of his judgment should be sent to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the regulator for fertility clinics, and the Home Office.

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