Photographer is father of Anna Nicole's baby

The ongoing battle over the spoils of the dead former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith reached a turning point yesterday when the paternity of her baby daughter Dannielynn was finally put beyond doubt.

DNA tests confirmed the baby's natural father to have been Smith's former boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, a California-based photographer. The DNA expert who carried out the test on behalf of the Bahamas courts, Dr Michael Baird, said that the result was 99.999 percent in favour of Birkhead, which he described as "pretty good".

Satellite television crews and throngs of tourists to the Bahamas were treated to the sight of Birkhead gloating outside the courtroom in downtown Nassau. "I hate to be the one to tell you this," he said, clearly loving it, "but I told you so."