A story published in this week's Sunday Times alleges that a London doctor fathered more than 100 children following artificial insemination (AI). It is said that the late Derek Richter, a neuropsychologist, donated sperm on many occasions between 1945 and 1951, for use by Mary Barton, a doctor who 'pioneered' the use of artificial insemination in the 1930s.

Barton revealed what she was doing via an article in the British Medical Journal in 1945 but was met with many unfavourable responses, both from the medical establishment and the public.

The information has now come to light because Richter's daughter wrote an article for a newsletter published by the Donor Conception Network (DCN). She said that 'after three years he was one of their champion donors. He had fathered his first hundred... his samples were hyper-fecund'. The DCN believe that this might not be an isolated case, and that other academics may have secretly donated sperm in the early days of AI.

Henry Rollin, a friend of Richter, remembered him sending off samples. He said 'he knew he was a superior person intellectually speaking, and I am pretty certain that proliferating his genes was his basic reason for donating sperm'.