By msnbc.com staff
Desmond Hatchett of Knoxville, Tenn., doesn't deny fathering 30 children, by 11 mothers no less -- instead, he's pleading with the state to help him out with child support.
Hatchett, just 33, appeared in court this week to make his case, WREG-TV reported.
Holding a minimum wage job, Hatchett already gives half his pay to the children's mothers but because he has a minimum wage job some moms get just $1.49 a month in support.
The children range in age from toddlers to 14.
"I had four kids in the same year. Twice," he said in explaining how he set the paternity record for Knox County.
WREG noted that Hatchett had not broken any laws fathering so many children, and that the state had no means to require him to stop.
Melissa Gibson, an assistant supervisor with the Knox County child support clerk's office, told the Los Angeles Times that she wished something could be done.
"If there's something out there like that, I'm unaware of it," Gibson said, then added: "It definitely needs to be."
It was not clear what the next steps in Hatchett's appeal to the state would be.
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