Local council 'will not pay for 13-year-old's paternity test'
A paternity test for baby-faced English "father" Alfie Patten will not be paid for by his local authority, sources have said.
Chantelle Steadman, 15, has said 13-year-old Alfie is the father of her baby daughter Maisie, born a week ago in Eastbourne.
However, reports that at least two other boys said they also slept with the teenager at around the time she became pregnant have led Alfie to decide to take a DNA test, his spokesman Max Clifford said.
East Sussex County Council have refused to comment on claims that its social services department would pay for the paternity test, but sources said that such tests would be up to the individuals to pay for, and not the local authority.
A spokesman for East Sussex Downs and Weald Primary Care Trust said the NHS also did not pay for DNA tests.
Matt Dunkley, director of children's services at the council, said it would not be making any further comment on the case.
He said: "Our primary duty is the protection of children and young people.
"We do not believe the interests of the children and young people in this case are being well served by the current media coverage of it.
"We will continue to do our professional job of supporting these children and young people and putting their interests first, and for that reason we will not be commenting on this issue further."
He added that the council would be referring the case to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), which said it had launched an inquiry into alleged payments by The Sun and the People newspapers to the parents of Alfie.
