Alfie Patten And Chantelle Graduate From Sex Education Class

ALFIE Patten, 13, claims to have fathered his inamorata Chantelle Steadman’s baby daughter, Maisie Roxanne. Now read on…

The Herald: Old orthodoxies cannot address underage sex

What’s it all about, Alfie? Regardless of whether 13-year-old Alfie Patten is or is not the father of 15-year-old Chantelle Steadman’s baby daughter, the story has set the hare running on the issue of teenage pregnancy.

No story can be a story unless it contains the nugget of an issue. What that issue is depends on your vested interest and prejudices. For teenage boys it is about how 12-year-old Alfie not only pulled an older woman but squired her while they were just getting into masturbation.

The left is quick to draw on the still lamentable quality of sex education in Britain and the patchy quality of what are optimistically called “family planning services”…

The right blames moral decline: “broken Britain”.

So two teenagers have sex is a political matter?

So what to do, Anne Johnstone?

Poor Maisie. What a terrible world to be born into: devoid of morals and awash with greed and “sexploitation”.

Yeah, but…

No wonder, given the continuing coyness about sex… that old Calvinistic reserve, played out in sniggers and euphemisms…

Right. Left. Kak handed.

The tragedy about Britain’s teenage pregnancy debate is that it is so polarised, while both sides wring their hands about 12-year-olds having sex…

Now wash your hands.

The Mirror - Brian Reade:  “It’s all about Alfie.”

The claim from 14-year-old boys that they slept with Chantelle Steadman. No  you didn’t. You had a quick session behind the bushes, then went hom for chicken nuggets.”

That man watching you is Brian Reade.

The Independent: “Judge bans further reporting on story of 13-year-old father”

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.

So let us not say another word about it…

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.

Enough…

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.”

Move on…

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.”

Job done.

The Independent: “E Jane Dickson: Filling a void where love should be”

Next week, my 11-year-old son is due to watch a schools sex information film. It’s an event viewed with no great enthusiasm by a boy who still covers his face with a cushion when James Bond moves in for a smooch. This seems to be a common enough reaction among his peers. “For the love of God,” as one small sophisticate put it on the way to Scouts, “do we really need to know this stuff?”

The stuff that oozes…

Girls, in short, have never been so well informed. Contraception is freely and confidentially available. It cannot be repeated too often that fathers, whether they’re 13 or 30, must own their responsibilities, but there is now scant reason, barring the obvious circumstance of rape, for a 15-year-old to get pregnant if she doesn’t want to. Which leads us to the uncomfortable truth that many girls, too young for legal sex, do in fact want to have babies.

D’yer think?

Now the media can no longer report on Alfie, Chantelle and Masie, the hacks will have to write about themselves and their own experiences of teenage sex, and their children…

Anorak

Posted: 19th, February 2009 | In: Key Posts, Media Comments (12) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink