UK’s youngest mum cleared of shoplifting

A TEENAGER who became known as Britain’s youngest mum has been cleared of shoplifting after the Crown deserted the case.

Tressa Middleton, who fell pregnant at the age of 11, had been due to stand trial at Livingston Sheriff Court. She had denied stealing clothing and toys from an Argos branch in Bathgate, West Lothian.

Michael Deacon, prosecuting, asked the court to abandon the case as part of a wider plea bargain with Middleton’s lawyers. Sheriff Douglas Kinloch agreed to desert the case against her.

Middleton, now 18 and who says she is now expecting her second child, is still to be sentenced for a fraud, which she admitted last week.

She pleaded guilty to trying to pay a fake £500 cheque into her bank account at an RBS branch.

Middleton also pleaded guilty to breaching a bail undertaking and failing to turn up at court earlier this year.