gmb45
23rd May, 2009, 06:27 PM
At least once a week, Chantelle Stedman pops into her local corner shop to buy sweets - and nappies.
It's easy to forget, thanks to the controversy surrounding the birth of her daughter almost four months ago, that 15-year- old Chantelle is a young girl as well as a mother; but 'sweets and nappies' rather sums up this unsettling tale of our times.
Indeed, Mickey and Minnie Mouse hold hands on the headboard of Chantelle's bed, which is covered with lovehearts.
Alfie Patten
Baby-faced: Alfie Patten with newborn Maisie earlier this year
Few teenage mothers - Britain has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Western Europe - have provoked such fierce public debate as Chantelle.
The father of the child, her family said, was 13-year-old Alfie Patten, a wisp of a boy, no more than 4ft tall, who looked barely old enough to tie his own shoe laces.
The subsequent 'family' photographs which appeared - Chantelle and little Alfie cradling 7lb 3oz Maisie - seemed to go against nature, a shocking reversal of the natural order.
The truth which finally emerged this week was equally shocking. Alfie was not the real 'dad' after all.
The biological father, DNA results proved, was another teenager, 15-year-old Tyler Barker.
The news added credence to months of speculation and rumours that Maisie, in fact, could have been the daughter of any one of a number of local youths. Up to eight boys have, rightly or wrongly, been linked with Chantelle.
One girl, 'eight' boys - it's a terrible slur, one which Chantelle denies, but which has already resulted in her being called a 'slut' in the street.
Whatever the truth, one thing seems undeniable: Chantelle is the victim of an appalling upbringing.
Today, we are able to reveal the background to the scandal after East Sussex County Council failed in its attempt to ban reports of the case.
The story involves drugs - and drug dealing on the local estate - volatile domestic rows (neighbours say police were called to Chantelle's parents' Eastbourne home on numerous occasions), and a culture of underage sex as intrinsic to the everyday lives of some children as PlayStations and pop music.
More than anything else, however, Chantelle's experience provides yet more evidence that the values of a welfare- state spawned underclass are being passed from generation to generation, from father to son, mother to daughter.
For I can disclose today that Chantelle's own mother Penny was herself a teenage mum.
That the setting is 'genteel' Eastbourne, not some godforsaken urban jungle, is, in its own way, even more depressing.
Two further, but related, stories relayed to us during our inquiries in this seaside retirement town this week underline the scale of the social problems highlighted by Chantelle.
One came from a teacher who saw two sisters, believed to be aged 14 and 15, dressed in their pyjamas and dressing gowns, at the shopping parade near Chantelle's street about a fortnight ago.
'Why are you in your pyjamas?' the woman asked. They told her they had just come out of hospital where they had given birth within a day of each other.
'Their babies, they said, were being cared for by their mother while they popped out for some 'treats'.
The other shocking insight is from a resident who lives near Alfie Patten in nearby Hailsham, where Chantelle also used to live.
He said local children engaged in sexual activity in the shrubbery in his garden - not the back garden, but the front, in full view of his lounge window.
'They used to do it deliberately,' says Eddy Powell, a 55-year- old former soldier.
'They were making some kind of statement. They thought it was a big joke lifting up their skirts.
'Sometimes you'd find condoms in the morning; sometimes you didn't.' The nocturnal visits finally stopped after he threatened to set his dog on them. This, then, is the kind of environment in which Chantelle Stedman grew up.
The Stedmans now live in a council house in a pleasant, tree-lined avenue, not a sink estate, in Eastbourne. It has a big garden - and satellite dish, naturally, all paid for by taxpayers.
Penny Stedman has five children with her husband Steve, who's 43, and yes, out of work.
Five kids, plus one grandchild and two unemployed adults adds up to about ?30,000 in benefits.
The old saying might hold that 'the sins of the father shall be visited upon the sons'.
But the sentiment holds equally true for mothers, and never more so than in the case of Penny Stedman.
For Penny had a baby daughter herself when she was 16. Penny and the child's father didn't stay together, and the child was put up for adoption.
Shortly afterwards, Penny met Steve Stedman (who has two daughters from a previous marriage), and the couple went on to have five children, of whom Chantelle is the oldest. Locals this week described Steve Stedman as 'a nasty piece of work'.
By last year, however - when Penny's daughter Chantelle fell pregnant at 14 - the couple were understood to be living apart.
Their relationship, say neighbours, was volatile and police were often at their previous home in Hailsham.
'They really were the neighbours from hell,' said one. 'Their kids used to run wild and would jump all over parked cars. They never seemed to be in school.
'I'm not surprised at what has happened to Chantelle. She always used to have boys around. You could see them hanging out of her bedroom window.'
It was the same story when the family moved to their current home about two years ago.
One boy, who claims he had sex with Chantelle, says Mrs Stedman was downstairs at the time. Another says that, after he had allegedly slept with Chantelle, Mrs Stedman inquired: 'Did you have a good night?'
This is the woman who, according to high court judgment, is now offering 'the guidance and support one would expect from a grandmother in these difficult circumstances'.
At the heart of this disturbing story is a single street on the Old Town estate in Eastbourne.
Here, just round the corner from Chantelle's home, is where four of the boys who claim to have had sex with Chantelle - or were rumoured to have done so - either live or used to live.
One is a slight 15-year-old who lives with his grandmother. 'I did go out with her,' he told us several weeks ago.
'I was with her when she became pregnant. I stayed round her house. I want a DNA test just in case it's my baby.' At that point, his grandmother told him to 'stop incriminating' himself.
Was it just bravado? Either way, when we returned to interview them on Wednesday, they denied that he had ever had sex with Chantelle.
No sooner had they finished speaking than two of the other boys linked to Chantelle entered the street within a few minutes of each other.
The first, Richard Goodsell, was carrying a stereo. The 16-year-old, a trainee chef, was plastered over two pages of a Sunday red-top earlier this year under the headline: 'I'm the real Daddy, Alfie.'
His mother, Barbie-Jayne, 35, has twice appeared on TV's Trisha show, on one occasion on a programme about having an overactive sex life; unsurprisingly, perhaps, Barbie-Jayne has five children.
This week, having just arrived home in a smart 4x4 after a trip to the local Chinese takeaway, she said her son had been victimised after he spoke about his relationship with Chantelle.
'He's had nothing but hassle,' she said. 'He's been chased off by other boys and threatened. People have been walking around with T-shirts saying: "Richard's a tramp."
'I don't want him saying anything. The whole thing has caused us a lot of problems.'
For the record, the Goodsells sold Richard's story to the newspaper in question.
And the other lad we found strolling in the street this week?
It was none other than Tyler Barker, who, we now know, is the real father
It's easy to forget, thanks to the controversy surrounding the birth of her daughter almost four months ago, that 15-year- old Chantelle is a young girl as well as a mother; but 'sweets and nappies' rather sums up this unsettling tale of our times.
Indeed, Mickey and Minnie Mouse hold hands on the headboard of Chantelle's bed, which is covered with lovehearts.
Alfie Patten
Baby-faced: Alfie Patten with newborn Maisie earlier this year
Few teenage mothers - Britain has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Western Europe - have provoked such fierce public debate as Chantelle.
The father of the child, her family said, was 13-year-old Alfie Patten, a wisp of a boy, no more than 4ft tall, who looked barely old enough to tie his own shoe laces.
The subsequent 'family' photographs which appeared - Chantelle and little Alfie cradling 7lb 3oz Maisie - seemed to go against nature, a shocking reversal of the natural order.
The truth which finally emerged this week was equally shocking. Alfie was not the real 'dad' after all.
The biological father, DNA results proved, was another teenager, 15-year-old Tyler Barker.
The news added credence to months of speculation and rumours that Maisie, in fact, could have been the daughter of any one of a number of local youths. Up to eight boys have, rightly or wrongly, been linked with Chantelle.
One girl, 'eight' boys - it's a terrible slur, one which Chantelle denies, but which has already resulted in her being called a 'slut' in the street.
Whatever the truth, one thing seems undeniable: Chantelle is the victim of an appalling upbringing.
Today, we are able to reveal the background to the scandal after East Sussex County Council failed in its attempt to ban reports of the case.
The story involves drugs - and drug dealing on the local estate - volatile domestic rows (neighbours say police were called to Chantelle's parents' Eastbourne home on numerous occasions), and a culture of underage sex as intrinsic to the everyday lives of some children as PlayStations and pop music.
More than anything else, however, Chantelle's experience provides yet more evidence that the values of a welfare- state spawned underclass are being passed from generation to generation, from father to son, mother to daughter.
For I can disclose today that Chantelle's own mother Penny was herself a teenage mum.
That the setting is 'genteel' Eastbourne, not some godforsaken urban jungle, is, in its own way, even more depressing.
Two further, but related, stories relayed to us during our inquiries in this seaside retirement town this week underline the scale of the social problems highlighted by Chantelle.
One came from a teacher who saw two sisters, believed to be aged 14 and 15, dressed in their pyjamas and dressing gowns, at the shopping parade near Chantelle's street about a fortnight ago.
'Why are you in your pyjamas?' the woman asked. They told her they had just come out of hospital where they had given birth within a day of each other.
'Their babies, they said, were being cared for by their mother while they popped out for some 'treats'.
The other shocking insight is from a resident who lives near Alfie Patten in nearby Hailsham, where Chantelle also used to live.
He said local children engaged in sexual activity in the shrubbery in his garden - not the back garden, but the front, in full view of his lounge window.
'They used to do it deliberately,' says Eddy Powell, a 55-year- old former soldier.
'They were making some kind of statement. They thought it was a big joke lifting up their skirts.
'Sometimes you'd find condoms in the morning; sometimes you didn't.' The nocturnal visits finally stopped after he threatened to set his dog on them. This, then, is the kind of environment in which Chantelle Stedman grew up.
The Stedmans now live in a council house in a pleasant, tree-lined avenue, not a sink estate, in Eastbourne. It has a big garden - and satellite dish, naturally, all paid for by taxpayers.
Penny Stedman has five children with her husband Steve, who's 43, and yes, out of work.
Five kids, plus one grandchild and two unemployed adults adds up to about ?30,000 in benefits.
The old saying might hold that 'the sins of the father shall be visited upon the sons'.
But the sentiment holds equally true for mothers, and never more so than in the case of Penny Stedman.
For Penny had a baby daughter herself when she was 16. Penny and the child's father didn't stay together, and the child was put up for adoption.
Shortly afterwards, Penny met Steve Stedman (who has two daughters from a previous marriage), and the couple went on to have five children, of whom Chantelle is the oldest. Locals this week described Steve Stedman as 'a nasty piece of work'.
By last year, however - when Penny's daughter Chantelle fell pregnant at 14 - the couple were understood to be living apart.
Their relationship, say neighbours, was volatile and police were often at their previous home in Hailsham.
'They really were the neighbours from hell,' said one. 'Their kids used to run wild and would jump all over parked cars. They never seemed to be in school.
'I'm not surprised at what has happened to Chantelle. She always used to have boys around. You could see them hanging out of her bedroom window.'
It was the same story when the family moved to their current home about two years ago.
One boy, who claims he had sex with Chantelle, says Mrs Stedman was downstairs at the time. Another says that, after he had allegedly slept with Chantelle, Mrs Stedman inquired: 'Did you have a good night?'
This is the woman who, according to high court judgment, is now offering 'the guidance and support one would expect from a grandmother in these difficult circumstances'.
At the heart of this disturbing story is a single street on the Old Town estate in Eastbourne.
Here, just round the corner from Chantelle's home, is where four of the boys who claim to have had sex with Chantelle - or were rumoured to have done so - either live or used to live.
One is a slight 15-year-old who lives with his grandmother. 'I did go out with her,' he told us several weeks ago.
'I was with her when she became pregnant. I stayed round her house. I want a DNA test just in case it's my baby.' At that point, his grandmother told him to 'stop incriminating' himself.
Was it just bravado? Either way, when we returned to interview them on Wednesday, they denied that he had ever had sex with Chantelle.
No sooner had they finished speaking than two of the other boys linked to Chantelle entered the street within a few minutes of each other.
The first, Richard Goodsell, was carrying a stereo. The 16-year-old, a trainee chef, was plastered over two pages of a Sunday red-top earlier this year under the headline: 'I'm the real Daddy, Alfie.'
His mother, Barbie-Jayne, 35, has twice appeared on TV's Trisha show, on one occasion on a programme about having an overactive sex life; unsurprisingly, perhaps, Barbie-Jayne has five children.
This week, having just arrived home in a smart 4x4 after a trip to the local Chinese takeaway, she said her son had been victimised after he spoke about his relationship with Chantelle.
'He's had nothing but hassle,' she said. 'He's been chased off by other boys and threatened. People have been walking around with T-shirts saying: "Richard's a tramp."
'I don't want him saying anything. The whole thing has caused us a lot of problems.'
For the record, the Goodsells sold Richard's story to the newspaper in question.
And the other lad we found strolling in the street this week?
It was none other than Tyler Barker, who, we now know, is the real father