Judge bans further reporting on story of 13-year-old father
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Independent Minds
A High Court judge yesterday banned any further reporting about a 13-year-old boy who allegedly fathered a baby with a 15-year-old.
Mrs Justice Baron said Alfie Patten must be allowed to return to a normal life after a week of media intrusion and speculation about the paternity of baby Maisie. She granted an application to restrict all further reporting in the case of Alfie, Maisie and his supposed girlfriend, Chantelle Steadman, 15.
The story broke on the front page of The Sun last Friday with a baby-faced Alfie pictured beside the newborn girl, under the headline “Dad at 13”. The boy is expected to take a DNA test next week to determine whether or not he is the baby’s father, but the result of this test cannot be reported.
Following a hearing in private, a statement was read out to reporters explaining the judge’s reasons for making the order. It said that one of the reasons was “because of the birth of Maisie to a mother of only 15 and a putative father who was 13 at the time of the child’s birth and 12 at the time of the alleged conception”. And “because of allegations by at least two others that they may be the putative father of Maisie.” The statement added: “As a result of press intrusion, of which the court has received information, the private and family life of the mother and her baby has been disrupted to such an extent that the judge was concerned about the mother and baby being unable to live a normal family life.”
The judge ruled that the rights of the children involved under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights – to a private and family life – took precedence over the Article 10 rights of the press to freedom of expression. But Max Clifford, who is acting as Alfie’s agent, told The Independent yesterday: “The most important thing is obviously the welfare of the children involved. The problem is it’s too late … Controlling the media is one thing but these people are now household names. The boy involved is supposed to be anonymous as of today, but he must be the most famous anonymous 13-year-old in the world.”
Since the story emerged, a feeding frenzy has erupted around the Patten family home in Hailsham, East Sussex.
Charles Hendry, the local Tory MP, wrote to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) to voice his concern over media intrusion into the lives of the alleged teenage parents. On Monday night, Sir Christopher Meyer, the chairman of the PCC, announced an inquiry into whether payments by The Sun and The People broke the PCC code in relation to the treatment of minors.
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Comments
i think there should be a police investiagtion into neglect of the 15yr old as whats happened is wrong with different lads staying over.
secondly if the child isnt alfies and the 16yr olds. when was the child conceived, as if it is found out that the child was conceived after he was 16years old shouldnt he be faceing charges of having sex with a minor.
If you choose to have a child there should be some instrument by which you have to prove you will be able to provide for the child. Otherwise the term should not be allowed to proceed.
This country, along with the rest of the world as resources diminish, cannot afford to feed these extra mouths...and why should we?
Some time in the near future the world as a whole will have a bad harvest. There will be suffering on a massive scale. We need to address the problem of world population growth but nobody seems to be bothered!
And how would this be enforced? Would we have the pregnant underclasses dragged in off their estates kicking and screaming, then drugged to allow a termination to take place. This could also be a form of job creation--all those bailiffs and extra hospital staff required to enforce your new policy!
I suppose we could do away with religion at the same time just in case any objections arise on religious grounds?
I thought we as a country paid out taxes in order to help those less fortunate than us. I agree some people abuse the system which is unfortunate but your obvious contempt for those that need assistance is laughble and tragic at the same time.
Very uneduacated post.Must try harder.
You can bet that scores of would-be adoptive parents, who don't know the difference between a right and an entitlement (i.e. that of having other people's children handed to them) are putting pressure on the SS to snatch little Maisie.
Poor kid. The judge should have ruled that all the money should be put on an account, which no-one can access until Maisie is 18.
And Max Clifford should be ashamed of himself. Although we all know that will never happen.
First, dysfunctional families tend to beget dysfunctional families, and second, dysfunctional families tend to be of larger than average size.
As a result, dysfunctional families will increase relative to the rest of the population, putting an ever-greater burden on taxpayer. Eventually, the burgeoning under-class will be impossible to support. What then? I challenge any politician to answer this one.
Interesting that Patten has the same publicist as Jade Goody though. Max Clifford is having a really good month!
All be it the girls and boys having sex and making babies may be a little older or closer in ages. The fact remains in all these cases that young people will have sex.
Education from a young age delivered appropriately by specialists is surely a necessary element of modern schooling ? When will we all take responsibility for what our children are taught?
Not only estate kids get caught out like this. More affluent children are just as active and it is not just about money. It is about having sex. All creatures are hard wired to procreate. Educate early and keep talking.
The sensationalists in the Press Pack will have made a self fullfilling prophecy if they continue to publish and pay for such stories but that is missing the real point here. Very sad that so many children are let down so early in their lives by and education system which could do so much better.
Many of these children are 3rd generation underclass.
Their grandmother got pregnant and got a flat.
Their mother got pregnant and got a flat.
So why should they aspire to anything when their family didn't? All they had to do was get pregnant and the government would give them everything they need.
So young girls get pregnant with the reward of accomodation and benefits for the rest of their lives.
You get the behaviour you reward.
The irresponsible actions of the two families and the media will, in all probability, lead to even younger children having babies in an attempt to beat the record and make even more money.
We are not talking about lottery tickets or a new toy but a human life, the tiny body of a helpless baby!
At 12 or 13, little Alfie probably thinks if he pokes his finger in a girl's tummy button, he will have gotten her pregnant. I would be less shocked to find out that Chantelle was knocked up by another 16 year old than that Alfie's testes decended in time to do the deed.
I think the word "scam" will be used for this case before long... and the children involved, all of them, will be harmed no matter what.
Shame.
What complete nonsense. The underclass didn't start with the welfare state. In Victorian times familes would be living in a cellar with several others and a couple of pigs and before that in an isolated village somewhere.
Corporate greed and weak government are to blame. Over the past 25 years we have dismantled many of the things that gave people like this a bit more of a chance. They get poor education, no decent public service TV and are encouraged to buy food that is total crap.
I am appauled that people think this circus of errors has any newsworthiness or value, for it is pathetic that such action took place. Alfie is, obviously, out of control and only interested in reproduction reituals, while Chantelle Steadman is more common on the streets with other hustlers. This was not a love action, but one of base exploration. If I were the judge, I would sentence her to reformatory.
It was a breach of the press code to pay any of them so all the money should now be repaid.
Thank god the Judge has had the common sense to put a gagging order on the results of the DNA test.
Instead of encouraging them to get and give the best, instead I should have got them to breed.
Yeah, breed. Why study, why work? Just breed.
Oh well, bibi England, all the best...
"The term should not be allowed to proceed"
what an awful thing to say! How quickly you suggest such a terrible thing....
have you thought about the other people that cost the country money too?
People who smoke
overweight people that cost the NHS?
Hospitalisations from drug side effects that cost the NHS?
Anorexia nervosa patients that cost the NHS?
etc etc etc etc
I wonder what you would suggest for them? do you fit one of them?
Don't target any one area. it's not fair..
Incidentally. I do not condone it but I would imagine there a lot of people that tried sex at 13yrs old, and maybe they were lucky that the girl didnt get pregnant. I, myself, am not one of them, but I understand that people make mistakes, all of us, and that includes you, otherwise you are not human.
So get off your high horse and look in the mirror.
Wonderfully, Yes thankfully this country does look after the less fortunate and beserkerboy you never know when you might need it...