Channel 5's programme 40 Kids By 20 Women on Tuesday night shocked viewers with the story of former fairground operator Mike Holpin, dubbed Britain's most "feckless" father. Here are the three contenders for the title:
Keith MacDonald, 29, from Sunderland
Keith MacDonald, dubbed the "Sunderland shagger", has had 15 children and is expecting his 16th. And he's only 29 years old.
He claims to have made at least ten women pregnant after chatting them up on the bus.
Keith Macdonald in 2010 with mother No 10, Dannielle Little, the mother of his 10th child (North News)
Mr MacDonald, who is out of work because of a bad back, has had four children in the past two years and is expecting his 16th.
He said: "It's easy — they never seem to say no. Just chat them up on the bus.
"That's what I do and they never seem to say no. If they like you, they like you. Get their number and text them and arrange to meet when you come off the bus. I just pick them up like that."
Mr MacDonald is believed to collect about £44 a week in income support and £68 a week in incapacity benefits for a bad back.
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He told Channel 5 that he cannot find work because he is "no good at listening" and spends most of his time playing computer games.
It is believed that by the time his children reach the age of 18 they will have cost the taxpayer more than £2 million in benefits.
Mr MacDonald first came to public attention in 2011, when he tried to fake his own death. One former partner claimed that it was because he was trying to shirk responsibility for his ninth child.
He was later convicted of assaulting her and stealing £80 when they had a row over cheese toastie crumbs that he had left in a room she had just vacuumed.
Mike Hoplin, 56, from south Wales
Mr Hoplin, the "serial dad", has fathered an astonishing 40 children by 20 women and says he has so many he can't remember their names.
The recovering alcoholic, also unemployed, has been married three times and lives with his fiancee Diane and two of his children in Cwm, near Ebbw Vale.
He also told Channel 5 he once used one of his baby sons to attract new girlfriends.
Mike Holpin appears on ITV's 'This Morning' (Rex)
"In the Bible God says go forth and multiply - I'm doing what God wants," he said.
"I'm as fertile as sin, I don't believe in contraception and I love sex. I've got 22 kids that carry my name and there's about 18 - probably a few more - that don't."
Mike Holpin has his family tree tattooed on his back so he doesn't forget his children's names (Splash)
"When this goes hard [points to his groin] this goes soft [points to his head] and that is the God's honest truth. I could have more kids."
He said: "Its not that I am a babe magnet, I've got a hell of a sense of humour and I've got a personality."
He said most of his children had been "taken away" by social services and now he would hardly recognise them. His oldest child is 37 and his youngest is three.
Jamie Cumming, 36, from Dundee
Jamie Cumming had 17 children with 15 mothers and was then jailed for life for a fatal stabbing outside a pub last year.
Cumming, whose own mother condemned his attitude to women two years ago and branded him a sexual predator, was told he must serve at least 17 years in prison for murdering James Getty after a row at a birthday party.
Jamie Cumming had 17 children with 15 mothers
Doctors told a trial that they would have been unable to save the 29–year–old, who suffered injuries to his heart, lungs and liver, even if the stabbing had happened in a hospital car park.
Cumming tried to blame another man for the attack at the Maltman pub but a jury at the High Court in Dundee took just two hours to find him guilty.
• Feckless parents would only spend extra benefits on themselves, says Iain Duncan Smith
Cumming clashed with Mr Getty, a father of three, in a pub lavatory in Dundee last June before assaulting him outside.
After the killing he sent a number of text messages to say "goodbye" to former girlfriends.
He was branded the country's most feckless father in 2011 after his mother Lorraine branded him a sexual predator who chased teenage girls.
She said: "We don't speak to each other, and, even though I love him as my child, I am bitterly disappointed with how he lives his life.
"He just doesn't seem bothered, even though he thinks he's father of the year because he lives with three of them."
He claimed at the time that he was following the Bible's instruction to "go forth and multiply" and said he was doing his bit to combat Dundee's falling population.
His eldest daughter was born to a teenage girlfriend when he was 17.
Cumming, a former security guard, has 19 previous convictions, including one for assault.
http://report24.co.uk/article/143810/who-is-britains-most-feckless-fatherBleh.
