‘Baby factory’ man wins case

Addressing the public: Suriyamontol speaking to the press after his client was granted paternity rights to his children, at a juvenile court in Bangkok. — AFP

Bangkok: A wealthy Japanese man was granted “sole parent” rights to 13 children he fathered through Thai surrogate mothers, a Bangkok court ruled, paving the way for him to take custody of the group in Japan.

Mitsutoki Shigeta, 28, became the centre of a “baby factory” scandal in 2014 after Thai police said DNA samples linked him to nine infants found under the care of 24-hour nannies in a plush Bangkok apartment.