When then 15-year-old Chantelle Stedman gave birth to a baby girl in 2009, Britain was shocked to learn that the father was a 13-year-old boy named Alfie Patten.
Allegedly, he lost virginity with Chantelle and she fell pregnant with his child.
The young dad was even pictured holding his daughter Maisie in a hospital bed.
No matter how spectacular this story sounded, it was surrounded by controversy from the very beginning. If Alfie was truly the father, it meant his daughter was conceived when he was just 12.
Even then-Prime Minister David Cameron commented on the case, saying, “I just thought how worrying that in Britain today children are having children.”
Shortly after the sensational news spread worldwide like wildfire, six other boys claimed they had intercourse with Chantelle around the same time, with one of them, then 15-year-old Tyler Barker, saying the two had unprotected sex.
As these claims stir things up, Alfie’s and Tyler’s families agreed that both boys should take a £300 DNA test to resolve the paternity issue. When the results came it, it was determined that Tyler was, in fact, the father.
Alfie’s mother was mad at the media and the world, claiming the family were being “treated like something off the TV show Shameless.”
“Suddenly Alfie’s name was being thrown about in Parliament and on the 10 o’clock news. We were portrayed as a bad family from the wrong side of town,” she told The Mirror.
Speaking to The Sun in 2014, Alfie said, “I was devastated. 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.”
Today, 28-year-old Alfie still struggles with his life.
He’s unemployed, battles addictions, and have troubles with the law. While suspended for shoplifting, theft and possession of an imitation firearm, he was convicted of criminal damage after smashing up cars. In 2021, he and his mother were kicked out of the home they were renting because of alleged drug dealing.
“The premises were being used for drug dealing and there was the anti-social behaviour spilling out onto the street and affecting the neighbourhood,” District Judge Teresa Szagun said of the case. “From what I can gather the landlord does not want the Pattens back.”
It’s sad how this man’s life turned into horror from very early age.