A YOUNG mum has told of her ordeal after having a baby daughter at 12 — and
urged Britain’s youngest parents not to suffer like her.
Tressa Middleton says she was bullied at school, spat at, got hooked on heroin
and had to give up her daughter.
She has offered to meet the parents — a girl, 12, and boy, 13.
Tressa has not seen her daughter for six years and said: “I cry every single
day. She is all I think about.”
Now 20, Tressa revealed her heartache after The Sun exclusively told how
another girl, just 11 years and six months when she conceived, gave birth to
a daughter at the weekend — taking Tressa’s mantle as Britain’s youngest
mum.
Tressa was five months older when she fell pregnant in 2005. She gave birth in
June 2006 but two years later it emerged her daughter was the result of a
rape by her brother Jason, then 16.
Tressa and the tot were put in joint care three weeks after the birth. At age
two, in 2008, the child was formally adopted. Tressa lost all contact and
spiralled into a £400-a-day heroin addiction.
Last week she got a letter from her daughter — bringing fresh hope they might
meet again.
She added: “I just wish I didn’t have to give her up. I’ve been off heroin for
a few years now. One day I might see her again.
“I’m just starting to realise that I had my chances and failed her.”
Tressa also wished Britain’s new youngest parents good luck.
The mum, a pupil in Year 7, and boyfriend, who is 13, had the 7lbs 4oz girl
last Sunday.
They have the lowest combined age of any British parents in history. The girl
was just ten when they started going out and are described as “totally in
love”.
Tressa said: “I really want to make contact with the family.
“The mum should be proud of herself for keeping the baby.
“I send her my warmest congratulations but it will be incredibly tough. At
that age you’re so worried about what other people think at school.
“I had people throwing things at me with the baby in the buggy.
“And the bullies taunting you in the playground — that’s the worst.
“I was spat at, all sorts. I dearly hope that hasn’t happened for this mum. I
just hope she carries on at school. I didn’t and still don’t regret it.
“The big difference for her is having a loving family around her. I had
nobody.”
The new mother lives with her 27-year-old mum, one of the UK’s youngest grans,
in North London.
This week her step-grandad, 29, said he was proud of the girl, telling LBC
Radio’s Nick Ferrari: “I’d rather she had a kid than do drugs.” Tressa’s own
experience as a mum was far more traumatic.
She posed happily with her baby and mum Tracey Tallons at the 2006 birth in
Edinburgh. But her own dad was never around.
Tressa initially claimed a local boy was her daughter’s father — later saying
it was to protect her mum from the truth that Jason had been abusing her
since she was seven and he was 12.
Her brother, now 25, was jailed for four years in July 2009 and put on the sex
offenders register after admitting rape.
He was released in March last year but has returned to prison after breaking
his bail conditions.
Tressa, of Bathgate, West Lothian, quit heroin a few years ago.
She recalled: “I was injecting it nine or ten times a day, at the same time as
smoking it constantly. I would take it to forget everything, and to blank
out what Jason had done.
“The hardest bit about coming off heroin is that you have to face up to
things. I can cope with the physical withdrawal symptoms but I find it hard
to cope with my past now.”
She met fiancé Darren Young, 27, in 2010 and fell pregnant with his child when
she was 18. But she miscarried in August 2012. Days later her mum Tracey
died of pneumonia aged 41.
Tressa says the funeral finally allowed her to forgive Jason.
She said: “We were both in bits. We didn’t speak to each other but I didn’t
feel any hatred towards him. I know what he did was wrong, and so does he.”
Tressa is jobless and tries to live off the £27,500 compensation awarded over
the rape.
But she gets only tiny instalments of the total every month as it is held in a
trust fund.
She does not have carpets in her home nor own any socks.
Tressa said: “Despite having the money sitting in the bank, some days I wonder
how I’ll eat. I have letters coming in with final demands. No amount of
money will make up for my missed childhood. But I want to move on and build
a future. I don’t want to beg.”
She gets pictures and a letter from her daughter twice a year — but they are
not allowed any direct contact.
Tressa still dreams of having a family with Darren and the pair hope to marry
soon. She added: “It’s been such a hard time but I would love to have
another child.”