UK: Birth of 13-year-old dad's child sparks outrage(CNN) -- The birth of a child fathered by a 13-year-old boy has sparked an uproar in Britain.
Alfie Patten, who was only 12 when the baby was conceived with his girlfriend, Chantelle Steadman, 15, was first pictured on the front of Friday's tabloid Sun newspaper with his daughter, Maisie Roxanne, after her birth Monday.
He told the newspaper that he thought "it would be good to have a baby."
"I didn't think about how we would afford it. I don't really get pocket money. My dad sometimes gives me £10. When my mum found out, I thought I was going to get in trouble. We wanted to have the baby but were worried about how people would react. I didn't know what it would be like to be a dad. I will be good, though, and care for it."
Tony Kerridge, of the sexual health specialist Marie Stopes International, told PA that children needed better education.
"We have got the social aspect of young girls in the UK seeing having a baby as a route to getting their own place," he said.
London's The Times newspaper reported Saturday that in the past decade, more than 40 other boys younger than 14 had fathered children.
The UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Western Europe: 385 girls under the age of 14 became pregnant between 1998 and 2007.
