Traffic Exchange

Apr 18, 2014

Father of girl 12 who had baby tells LBC radio he is proud of her

Father of girl 12 who had baby tells LBC radio he is proud of her. The father of a 12-year-old girl who has become Britain’s youngest mother insisted that he is proud of his daughter.

The schoolgirl, who became pregnant by her 13-year-old ‘boyfriend’ when she was still in primary school, gave birth to a 7lb 4oz girl on Monday (AEDT).

At 12 years and three months, she is five months younger than the previous youngest UK mother. She and the baby’s father, who are said to be ‘totally in love’ and who have been going out for a year, are believed to be Britain’s youngest parents.

Her father, who found out she was pregnant only a month ago, called LBC Radio.

“That little girl does not bring shame to me at all, I’m so proud of her. Shame doesn’t even come into it,” he told LBC Radio.

“We didn’t know this was happening. Unfortunately kids this age are going to grow up to have boyfriends and partners or whatever. If they do things behind their parents’ back that’s something we’re never going to be able to find out.”

The man, from North London, no longer lives with the girl’s mother, who has become a grandmother at 27. Describing himself as a ‘proud grandad’ and using a false name to protect the identity of the girl, he told LBC Radio that both sets of parents were supporting the youngsters.

He described the 13-year-old boy, whose identity has also been withheld, as a “great kid”.

“I’d rather come home and had this, than find that she’s on drugs at 11 or 12,” he said. “There’s plenty of routes in this day and age that kids can go down.

“I mean, come on, she’s not the first person, she’s not the last person. There’s other kids out there that are on drugs at this age and doing all sorts of other stuff.

“You know what, she’s brought something beautiful into the world and we’re all going to stand by her and support this.”

He said he would not let his three-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son make the same mistake but denied that he could have prevented it.

“I cannot keep her wrapped up all her life,” he said. “You know, she goes to school, they spend time together. You can’t stop this. I cannot go out and watch my little girl 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s not possible.

“It won’t be happening again, what’s happened has happened because you give your children a bit of slack. So now we will be keeping an eye on people. Maybe we could of done more.

“They made a mistake and that’s the thing we’ve got to deal with now and just be proud of what we’ve got.”

The man admitted that he cried when he found out that his daughter was pregnant.

“I didn’t say too much really. I sort of cried, I suppose, as any father would do. You break down with emotion,’ he said. ‘We heard four weeks ago, so she was eight months gone when we found out. What can you say, I suppose?”

He said his own mother, who has become a great-grandmother at 56, was “obviously very shocked”.

“Well you know, back then ... it wasn’t heard of back then,” he said.

The baby will not be brought up on benefits, he insisted.

“I work, I own my own business, and I’m fully going to support them with my own money, not necessarily forking out of other people’s pockets,” he said. “We’re not scroungers. I will sit there and support this baby as best I can, with my own money that I earn from working.”

Tressa Middleton was previously Britain’s youngest mother. She gave birth in Edinburgh in 2006 aged 12 years, eight months.

Sean Stewart, from Bedford, became Britain’s youngest father at the age of 12 in 1998.

The world’s youngest mother was Lina Medina, from Peru, who gave birth to a son when she was only five years and seven months old in May 1939.