THERE are people out there who rarely see the one child they have – but they’ve got nothing on these feckless dads.
Yesterday Kane Hull – son of infamous dad-of-22 Raymond Hull – was handed a life sentence of at least 28 years in prison for the murder of Ryan Kirkpatrick.
It makes him the second son of Hull’s to have been banged up for killing someone. In 1996, his brother Adrian kicked Nicky Morrison to death in a park before throwing his body into a stream.
Adrian was freed from prison in 2013 aged 34, having served 17 years.
Their dad Raymond Hull – whose 22 children are fathered by 11 different women – has also fallen foul of the law.
In 2014 he was handed a suspended sentence for drug offences – so he could help his then-partner look after their seven-month-old son, the youngest of his 22 kids.
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Around the same time Hull had been on the dole for 10 years, but was also seen living it up on holiday abroad, driving flash BMW cars and a speedboat.
His former neighbours also claimed he had a caravan and, at one point, a double decker bus parked in his drive, and made their lives hell with wild boozy late night parties in his garden, likening him to Frank Gallagher from Shameless.
Hull, 66, is believed to have cost the taxpayer an estimated £1million over the years to look after his huge brood, and has been dubbed one of Britain’s most feckless dads.
In 2020 he dodged jail once again due to childcare reasons, despite admitting causing death by careless driving.
His van was doing almost twice the 30mph limit when he hit 90-year-old Leslie Todd in his car in Carlisle in October 2018.
But Judge Andrew Jefferies QC said a probation report concluded a jail term would have a “devastating effect” on his three youngest children who all faced personal struggles.
Instead, he got nine months suspended, a curfew and a three-year road ban.
Despite seven of his kids not knowing he was their dad in 2014, Hull previously boasted to The Sun: “People might have a pop at me but I love my kids.
“I can’t help it if I’m so fertile, and it’s not my fault I can’t work. I would if I could but I’ve got a bad back.
“I keep in touch with as many of my kids as I can and they come round for dinner every week. I’m a great dad — all my kids will tell you that.”
Hull is not the only one to be dubbed one of the UK’s most feckless dads, as we reveal…
Dubbed the ‘Sunderland sh****r’, MacDonald first became a father at 15 as he left school – and by 2015, at the age of 29, he had 15 children with 10 different women, and a 16th on the way.
He had rarely worked since becoming a dad, admitting he found it boring, and had previously claimed incapacity allowance for a “bad back”.
It was estimated he’d cost taxpayers more than £2 million in benefits at the time.
MacDonald – who already had six kids when he turned 20 including two he claimed were conceived on double-decker buses – has boasted about his refusal to use contraception.
On a TV documentary entitled 40 Kids By 40 Women, he said he travels to Birmingham to “pull girls” because his reputation is so bad in his home city of Sunderland.
Despite his then-partner being heavily pregnant, he confessed he was still desperate to meet new women – and was even shown trying to chat up potential women at a bus stop.
The last time I had sex was nine months ago and the person’s pregnant. Just chat them up on the bus. That’s what I do… If they like you, they like you
Keith MacDonald, dad-of-16
MacDonald, 36, denies all 16 of the children he is said to have fathered are his, but praised his fertility and chat-up skills.
He said: “How many of my ex-girlfriends am I still friends with? None of them. Apart from one and that’s the one that is pregnant now.”
He added: “The last time I had sex was nine months ago and the person’s pregnant.”
Prior to that, he bragged: “It’s easy – they never seem to say no. Just chat them up on the bus. That’s what I do… 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.”
MacDonald first hit the headlines in 2011 when he tried to fake his own death in order to deny responsibility for his ninth child.
A year later, in November 2012, he was found guilty of common assault and of stealing from one of his ex-partners after an argument over a cheese toastie.
On the same programme as MacDonald, unemployed Mike Holpin outdid him, boasting he’d fathered 40 children by 20 different mothers.
The former alcoholic, 63, said: “I’m as fertile as sin. I don’t believe in contraception and I love sex.”
He has his kids’ names tattooed on his back, so he doesn’t forget them.
Several of Holpin’s children have been taken into care and, after the documentary was released, one of his sons, Mike Jr, called him “the worst man I have ever met”.
Mike Jr’s mum, Diane Emery, was the second of Holpin’s three wives, but by the time he was born, Holpin had three other women on the go, all living on the same street.
During his marriage to Diane he was still fathering children with his first wife, Sue, and sleeping with his soon-to-be third wife Trina, Diane’s best friend.
I have so many half-sisters that every time I talk to a girl on a night out, I have to check that we’re not related
Mike Holpin Jr
Mike Jr told the Mirror: “We were brought into a really crazy environment with my dad just wandering from bed to bed.
“He had all those women wrapped round his little finger. They spent all their benefits money on his beloved bikes and booze.
“It got to the point where the women borrowed food and clothes off each other just to make sure the kids were looked after.
“He used to brag how one day he got one ex-wife to buy him a motorbike in the morning and then used it to get across the valley to spend the night with another woman.
“It was all part of the game to him. Social services took us because mum couldn’t cope.”
Mike Jr was taken into care before he was four, and says he can only account for 19 of his siblings.
“I have so many half-sisters that every time I talk to a girl on a night out, I have to check that we’re not related,” he said.
In 2015 Peter Rolfe was unemployed, had 14 daughters, 12 sons, and claimed he was raking in nearly £50,000 a year in benefits for him and his family.
The dad, 71, who is not in touch with all of his children, was also handed a dream £300K five-bedroom house in Newport, Isle of Wight, funded by taxpayers, and lived there with seven of his children, plus two grandchildren.
However, he said: “I am not living in a mansion. People think I live a life of luxury but I don’t. I don’t drink or take drugs or go out.
“I do what I can to keep my children happy. It is hard. By the time I have spent my money on gas, electric and food shopping, I end up with about £20 a week spare.”
Rolfe said that he could not remember whether he had been married “three or four times”, however it is believed to be six.
He also has convictions for drugs offences, drink driving and anti-social behaviour, but is believed to have dodged jail because he has so many children to care for.
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Former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe branded him Britain’s most feckless father and said he does not deserve a tent, let alone a council house.
Meanwhile in 2014, his daughter Roseanne Rolfe – the only family member of his enormous family seeking work, training as a painter and decorator – said: “Dad should not have had as many kids… he was a Jack-the-Lad with an eye for the ladies, but that is no excuse.”
