Girl of 13 wins right to keep her baby a secret

A GIRL who became pregnant at 13 has won a family court fight to keep news of her child secret from the teenage father.

Lawyers representing the girl, who is now approaching 15, said she thought the boy would harass her if he learned she had given birth.

She wanted the girl to be adopted and her lawyers argued she would lose her privacy, because the boy would leak the news, and her hopes of “returning to normality” would be dashed.

A judge has concluded council social services with welfare responsibility for the baby need not tell the boy, who is around 16, about the baby.

Mr Justice Cohen, who analysed evidence in a private hearing at the Family Division of the High Court in Newcastle , said a “combination of factors” made it inappropriate for the boy to be informed.

He said the girl was “very young”.

“If the knowledge is imparted to the father, the strong probability is that the knowledge will not be confined but will spread around the community,” he said in a written ruling.

“If that happens the probability is that her education will be terminated and she will become socially isolated. In my assessment there seems no ground for a realistic belief that the paternal family would be able to offer (the child) a safe and secure home.”