Mick Reynolds is a grieving father and a broken man after learning that his love affair with his son Lockie Hernaman was based on a terrible lie.
“I felt angry, I felt ripped off,” Reynolds told A Current Affair.
Reynolds was 21 when he learned his girlfriend Melissa Hernaman was pregnant.
Lockie Hernaman and Mick Reynolds. (A Current Affairs)
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“I said, ‘is that even mine?’ And then he said, ‘Yeah, sure,'” Reynolds said.
Reynolds wasn’t ready to be a father, but Lockie became the apple of his eye.
Reynolds stayed in the family home with Hernaman and Lockie as long as he could.
Lockie Hernaman and Melissa Hernaman. (Facebook)
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By the time Lockie was seven, Reynolds felt comfortable dating and sharing custody with Hernaman.
Reynolds claims he paid Lockie’s expenses when she was with him and also paid money to Hernaman to support Lockie for 10 1/2 years.
“(I paid) $400 a fortnight into Mel’s account,” Reynolds said.
Mick Reynolds. (A Current Affairs)
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“I did it from when I moved in at the end of 2005 until he turned 18.”
Reynolds said he believes he paid about $110,000 over the years.
She said her other son, Rory, was born “a mini me”, but looking back “Lockie was nothing like me”.
Family tragedy opens a can of worms
Reynolds is a proud father and shared a deep passion for sports with Lockie.
On April 30, 2019, Lockie’s heart suddenly stopped while training on foot in his hometown of Harvey in Western Australia.
Mick Reynolds with his son Rory and Lockie Hernaman. (A Current Affairs)
“The phone call was, ‘Lockie has collapsed on the oval standing,’ … and they said they’re working on him,” Reynolds said.
“The phone rang again and it was a copper on the phone and (they) said, ‘he’s gone.’
The 20-year-old’s death shattered the small community and his parents.
In the months that followed, the family wanted answers about Lockie’s death, but got none.
“Sudden heart failure, that’s the only answer I really got,” Reynolds said.
But more than a year later, Reynolds said Hernaman received a call from a genetic testing team at Perth’s King Edward Memorial Hospital, where Lockie was born.
“So Mel has contacted me to say, ‘they want to do some tests and stuff.’
On April 30, 2019, Lockie Hernaman’s heart suddenly stopped while he was training on foot in his hometown of Harvey in Western Australia. (A Current Affairs)
But that’s all the information Reynolds got.
“He never passed on any information,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said she felt something didn’t add up, so her partner, Sharna Timmer, looked into genetic testing in WA.
After months passed, they had a breakthrough when they contacted King Edward Memorial Hospital.
The mother admits questionable paternity
Reynolds took the test and was told it was fine, so he turned his attention to Hernaman.
“So I put it on her and said, ‘well, I don’t carry the gene’ and she said, ‘well, neither do I’, so I told her the next thing was, ‘well who, where did it?’ . comes from?’.
“It went silent… and then on the phone… it hung up pretty quickly.”
Melissa Hernaman. (Facebook)
In a text message to Reynolds, Hernaman confessed his terrible lie: that Lockie’s paternity was never certain.
“There was another person, once, just one,” the text read.
“Yes, you can take the test and we find that you are not the biological father, but you are and always will be her father.
“I know I should have said something at the time, but I know I was wrong and I knew he would be a good father.”
Reynolds needed closure in the form of a paternity test, but to do that Hernaman had to sign over Lockie’s DNA released by the WA coroner.
“We couldn’t get any DNA from Lockie for paternity testing unless Mel’s full permission was given,” Timmer said.
Sharna Timmer. (A Current Affairs)
A parent learns the truth
Finally, in December of last year, Reynolds learned the truth.
“Michael Bruce Reynolds, you are not the biological father of Lachlan Bailey Hernaman,” one letter read.
“Who’s the father?” Reynolds said he asked.
“She wouldn’t tell me,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds got a name and said the man they told him was Lockie’s biological father.
“I talked to him for about 10 minutes or so,” Reynolds said.
“All he said was, ‘yes, yes, yes,’ and at the end he said, ‘I appreciate your call,’ and I’ve never heard or seen him since.”
Lockie was a fit young man when his heart suddenly stopped.
Lockie Hernaman with Mick Reynolds. (A Current Affairs)
His parents still don’t know why this happened, because genetic testing teams gave them the all clear.
But his biological father may have the clue to his death.
When Reynolds finally had all the facts, he went to Harvey to apologize and presented the money he had paid Hernaman.
“She turned around and said she should have paid more,” Reynolds said.
When A Current Affair approached Hernaman, he wasn’t interested in answering questions about Reynolds.
When asked why she collected child support payments for a decade when she knew Reynolds might not be the father, she responded by saying “I didn’t.”
Reynolds will always consider Lockie his son and still goes to his grave to mourn his loss, but now even that could be taken away from him.
Mick Reynolds crying at Lockie Hernaman’s grave. (A Current Affairs)
“He’s in the process of trying to change the headstone,” Reynolds said.
“(To get) my name out.”
What became clear throughout Reynolds and Timmer’s research into paternity fraud is that there is little support available to men in Australia.
It can also be a very expensive exercise to try and get your money back.
Reynolds said he had to drop his legal fight against Hernaman because he couldn’t afford it.
“I’ve had a marriage breakdown. I couldn’t hold down the job … I had $37 left,” Reynolds said.
“How do you feel about justice in this situation?” I asked
“For Mel to acknowledge what she’s done, that’s justice, but she doesn’t have it in her,” Reynolds said.
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