Scottish girl who gave birth at 12 tells her story

June 1, 2010 by Shawn Douglas
Filed under: News

The Scottish girl who became a mother at 12 revealed her identity and told more of her story yesterday.

Tressa Middleton was only 11 years old when she drunkenly had sex in 2005. When the story broke to the media, her identity was protected. But The Scottish Sun and the Daily Mail revealed her identity and story this week after Middleton turned 16 years old.

“I slept with him because I was drunk and I wanted to,” she told the Daily Mail. “I don’t regret it because if I didn’t have sex with him, I wouldn’t have [had] my baby.”

The teen eventually gave birth to a baby girl in 2006, but it was eventually taken away and placed with foster parents. Middleton was only able to see the child once every three months at a family center.

Middleton recalled her anguish as her daughter began referring to the foster mother as “Mum.” “It felt like every time I saw her I was losing her more and more,” she said.

Then about 18 months ago, Middleton’s daughter was placed with adoptive parents. She says that the situation became even more difficult because the adoptive parents didn’t want Middleton to have contact.

“After I’d signed the adoption papers, I went to court to fight for twice-a-year contact. I’d even tried to make a deal that if I signed the papers I would get to see her once a year, but the adoptive parents didn’t want that. They don’t want me to see her.”

Middleton told the media that she’s been working on cleaning up her life after experimenting with alcohol and drugs at an early age. She said she aspires to join the Army to study engineering or nursing. “There was no discipline in my house when I was a child so I think the Army will do me good,” she told The Scottish Sun.

Now 16, Middleton also went on to say that she’s been seriously seeing Darren Young, 24, and has been considering the possibility of becoming a mother for the second time. She says she would be willing to put her military dream temporarily on hold to do so.

“I would delay it for a couple of years. After that Darren could look after the wee one and we could get a house on the base.”

The full stories can be found here, here and here.