When they were catapulted into the spotlight, they were still children.
However, in the intervening years, what has become of the youngest parents in Britain?
This week, we disclosed that Tressa Middleton, the youngest mother in Britain, is currently expecting her fourth child, having given birth at the age of twelve.
Former Britain’s youngest mum Tressa Middleton with her daughter in 2006
A photo of a baby ultrasound that the 29-year-old Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland resident posted on Facebook was taken 17 years after her first pregnancy made headlines around the country.
She exclaimed, “So guys, it’s another girl!!” in the post. Four girls, I can’t believe it. Good luck, Darren.”
We relive Tressa’s heartbreaking tragedy and what happened to the other youngest parents in Britain as the expectant mother reveals her good news.
Horrific attack
When Tressa’s pregnancy was made public at the age of 11, it was thought to be the consequence of an incident involving alcohol.
Born from a chaotic household with a mother struggling with addiction, Tressa gave birth not long after finishing elementary school.
Two years after she gave birth, the young mother battled depression and alcohol and cigarette addictions, which resulted in her child being taken from her custody and placed for adoption.
The father’s identity was kept a secret until 2009, when the young mother broke down and told authorities that her elder brother Jason had s******y assaulted her.
The 34-year-old Jason was found guilty of s******y abusing the woman starting when she was seven years old and was sentenced to four years in prison in 2009. This was all due to DNA evidence.
Tressa stated to the Daily Mail in 2011 that “sometimes he blackmailed or bribed me to do it.”
“He’d say he was going to tell Mum. He’d give me things – joints, drink, cigarettes. Or he’d threaten me.”
Since then, Tressa has battled to put her life back together and overcome her addiction to heroin, which cost her £400 every day.
She and her partner, Darren Young, are currently expecting their third child.
UK’s most recent youngest mum
For fifteen years, Tressa was the youngest mother in Britain. However, in 2021, an 11-year-old was believed to have given birth, according to The Sun.
At the age of ten, the girl—who remained anonymous for legal reasons—was s*****y assaulted.
Her family was unaware of the horrifying attack, and social services looked into the matter at the time.
“It has come as a big shock,” a family friend said in 2021 to The Sun.
“She’s now being surrounded by expert help. The main thing is that she and the baby are OK.”
Father with a baby face
The story went viral when it was announced that 13-year-old Alfie Patten was going to become a father.
Even the prime minister at the time, David Cameron, offered his thoughts on the 2009 case, in which it was alleged that the father had fathered a child before reaching the legal age to buy party poppers.
The Tory leader stated at the time, “I just thought how worrying that in Britain today children are having children.”
At the age of twelve, Alfie had intercourse with his then-girlfriend Chantelle Steadman, then fifteen, during a sleepover in Lower Dicker, East Sussex, and believed he had gotten her pregnant.
However, six weeks after Maisie was born, a DNA test revealed he wasn’t the biological father. The child’s true father was later reported to be 14-year-old Tyler Barker.
Alfie said, “I was devastated,” to The Sun in 2014. “It was too much to take in. I cried for days and barely left my room.”
“To make things worse I never saw Maisie again because Chantelle and her family moved away as soon as they found out I wasn’t the dad.
“I couldn’t face doing anything. I couldn’t go to school. I thought my world had ended.”
By 2019, Alfie was out of work, struggling with alcoholism, and having legal issues.
He was already serving a suspended sentence for shoplifting, theft, and possessing an imitation firearm when he crashed cars, leading to his conviction for criminal damage.
He and his mother were expelled from their house in March 2021 due to suspected drug peddling, according to the Daily Mail.
UK’s youngest father
In 1998, Sean Stewart was thought to be the youngest father in Britain prior to Alfie’s case.
When he became pregnant at the age of 11, it was with Emma Webster, his 15-year-old neighbor next door.
A month after turning twelve, Sean’s son Ben Louis was born, and he was subsequently granted a day off from school.
When they started dating, the pair was living next door in the Bedfordshire village of Sharnbrook.
At the time, it was said that Sean would climb over the roof to see Emma.
She remarked to The Sunday Telegraph at the time, “He said he was 12, I’d never have gone out with him if I’d known he was 11.”
Emma then got married to someone else and moved into a £200,000 house.
Sean spent some time attending his local school before leaving Bedfordshire in his early adolescence.
He was incarcerated for seven months in the late 2000s on suspicion of stealing, according to the Daily Mail.
Emma remarked at the time, “I don’t know where Sean is or what he is doing,” because she intended to go back to school when the baby was born.
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore because I don’t think it helps Ben.”
World’s youngest mum was five
When Lina Medina gave birth in Peru 82 years ago, she was only five years old.
Lina Medina, a Peruvian woman who gave birth in 1939 at the age of five, is the youngest mother in history.
The 89-year-old Medina suffered from “precocious puberty,” a disorder that causes puberty to start earlier than usual. Under the age of eight is deemed “precocious”.
The father’s identity has never been made public.
Despite being detained on incest charges, her father was later freed because there was insufficient proof.
Teenage couples of a comparable age who have consensual s*x in the UK and are under the legal consent age of 16 are unlikely to face legal action.
But all s****l activity with children under the age of 13 is illegal.