A father with great grandchildren older than his son has celebrated his 70th birthday.

Richard King, of Garnett Road, Thornton Heath has children from three marriages, with the youngest, Charlie, aged just five, but estranged great granddaughters aged nine and ten.

No longer living with Charlie’s Thai mother Treenet King, who is 20 years his junior, Mr King still sees Charlie every day, walking him to school but says many people mistake him for his granddad.

He said: “I do get looks but it doesn’t bother me. When we were at Croydon hospital and she was told she was pregnant, I was sat outside and two women came out and said Grandad’s got stuck in.”

Mr King first became a father aged just 18 with his first wife Maria, 16, and the pair went onto have two daughters and a son.

He said: “Things were different then, you have a lot of teenage pregnancy now but then it was a catastrophe. We were so naive.

"When she found out she said something to me about going to the doctor and being late and I said she should go earlier next time.”

Mr King spent 26 years with Maria, but following the split has lost touch with his first daughter Elaine, whose own daughter Sophie has girls aged nine and ten.

The former engineer later married a Pilipino and had a daughter who he also no longer sees and spent his big day on Tuesday January 24 with a new girlfriend in Brighton.

He said: “It is just the way I am. When my brother and sister found out I was a dad again they found it hysterical but weren’t surprised.”