British boy becomes father at 13
UK He's 13. He scarcely looks 10. And according to a British tabloid,
he's a father.
Baby-faced and only 4 feet (1.22 meters) tall, the boy, Alfie, was
just 12 when he impregnated Chantelle, now 15, The Sun reported Friday.
Shown in a video posted Friday on the tabloid's Web site, the diminutive
Alfie takes the newborn girl in his arms.
Asked what he would do to support the child financially, Alfie asks
in a small, high-pitched voice, "What's financially?"
The girl was taking birth control pills but missed one, the newspaper
reported. Friends and relatives left the family home near Eastbourne,
about 70 miles (110 kilometers) southeast of London, Friday without
speaking to reporters gathered outside. The teenagers could not
immediately be contacted.
The Sun did not say whether any tests were conducted to prove the
boy's paternity. The paper did not offer any immediate comment when
asked whether it had paid the family for the story.
Police and child services in Eastbourne, in southeast England, said
in a statement that they were "aware of a 14-year-old girl that had
become pregnant as the result of a relationship with a 12-year-old boy,"
adding that they were offering support to both young people.
Alfie's front page picture has sparked renewed debate about teen
pregnancy in Britain.
The country has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in Europe,
and government figures show that about 39,000 girls under age 18 became
pregnant in 2006. More than 7,000 of those girls were younger than 16.
Sunday, AP
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