Banks case stretches back almost 50 years

The Herald reports:

A man who claims to be John Banks’ son is taking the former Cabinet minister and mayor to court in a paternity case.

Antony Shaw, now 47, has filed proceedings in the High Court at Auckland asking a judge to declare that Banks is his birth father.

If the case is successful, the former politician could be declared Shaw’s next of kin with legal implications relating to potential claims against Banks’ will.

The court action follows years of uncertainty around the identity of Shaw’s real father. …

Shaw, who has lived in Japan for the last two decades, attended Mt Albert Grammar and grew up believing his mother’s Asian partner was his father.

His mother is alleged to have had relationship with Banks in the late 1960s while working as a nurse in Hamilton.

She eventually told Shaw about his parentage in 1999 and he tried to meet Banks in the early 2000s during a trip home from Japan to ask the then mayor “are you my father”, a 2001 women’s magazine article alleged.

So this happened when John Banks was aged around 22 or 23. And it was only 30 years later he was told his father may be Banks. Even if Banks is the father, it is possible he was unaware of the fact until Shaw approached him.