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A BRAVE 12-year-old who became Britain's youngest mum after a horrifying rape ordeal told The People: "I love my baby to bits - what happened to me is not his fault."
The schoolgirl was just 11 when she was brutally attacked by family friend Russell Tovey, 31, in her own home.
At first the young victim - we'll call her Stacey to protect her identity - was even too frightened to tell her own mum she had been raped.
But speaking for the first time about her torment, she vowed: "This won't stop me having the normal feelings of a mum.
"I hate Tovey for what he did to me and I feel like ripping him apart.
"My baby will have to know what happened one day - but he will NEVER call him Dad."
Cuddling baby Max, blonde Stacey revealed how she:
HAD no idea she was pregnant until only two weeks before she gave birth'
INVENTED a rape story to cover up for Tovey who had threatened revenge if she shopped him' and
GAVE up her baby for adoption - but begged to take him back after only one night apart.
Father-of-two Tovey, 31 - who is now behind bars and facing life in jail for the savage crime - was a close friend of Stacey's family.
He regularly took the youngster and her brothers for bike rides, swimming lessons and theme park outings.
But one night last summer he raped Stacey while her divorced mum was out at work then brutally terrified the 11-year-old into silence.
Stacey said: "He told me that if I said anything he would drive me into the middle of nowhere and dump me there. He said no one would ever find me.
"He was so trusted by the family that I didn't think Mum would believe me if I told her what he'd done. I just kept it to myself.
"I didn't like sleeping in my house any more if Mum was at work so I'd go and stay with my dad. I felt safer."
But Stacey's weight soon rocketed -and the truth began to dawn.
She said: "I started to wonder if I was pregnant but didn't want to believe it.
"I felt awful all the time and looked fat and horrible. But I had never felt the baby moving inside me, so I just tried to forget about it."
A GP eventually confirmed that Stacey was expecting.
But the stunned youngster recalled Tovey's threats - and made up a story about being raped when two men dragged her into a graveyard.
Two weeks later she had baby Max at her local hospital. Stacey recalled: "I talked it over with Mum and we decided it would be for the best if the baby was adopted.
"Bringing it up myself was always going to be a reminder of what had happened.
"And I didn't want to relive it every time I changed a nappy."
But Stacey changed her mind hours after Max was taken away from her.
She begged social services chiefs to return him - and has never regretted the decision.
Showing a courage and maturity way beyong her years, she said: "It has been really hard but all my friends at school have been great.
"Everyone is so interested in the baby and how we're doing - and no one has made fun of me at all.
"In a way, having Max has helped me get over what happened because he makes me laugh and smile."
She added: "I know I've got to be more responsible than other girls.
"Sometimes after I've done my homework I have to push my baby around the village to get him to sleep.
"It's not a game, not like playing with dolls - especially when he cries."
Stacey's 36-year-old mum - who we are calling Jane - said she had first suspected problems after her daughter missed one of her periods.
She recalled: "They had been as regular as clockwork and when they stopped I mentioned it to the GP.
"He said don't worry, she was young and her body would sort itself out.
"Then last Christmas we started to notice Stacey was putting on weight.
"I suggested she should stop eating so much and her gran even offered to pay her #1 for every pound she lost.
"Kids at school began teasing her, calling her Porker and joking she was pregnant. I even said myself that if she wasn't so young I'd have thought she was expecting."
Jane went on: "One day Stacey's gran said she was sure Stacey was pregnant.
"She'd felt her tummy - but it wasn't soft and wobbly with fat, it was hard.
"It didn't make sense because apart from a few little crushes Stacey had never shown any interest in lads.
"And I run a tight ship - she was always in bed at 9pm on the dot."
Jane went back to the GP, who suggested a pregnancy test.
The worried mum told Stacey she needed a urine sample, claiming it would help the doctor find out why she was putting on weight.
To Jane's amazement, the DIY pregnancy test was positive.
She said: "I was gobsmacked but I didn't tell Stacey because I wanted to get it confirmed by a doctor. I bundled her into the car and took her to the local surgery.
"The doctor ushered us in and I said, 'I think my daughter is pregnant'. Stacey became hysterical, crying and screaming, but the doctor calmed her down and led her away to do a test.
"Within minutes they were back and again the result was positive.
"Stacey was crying and wailing, saying she couldn't be pregnant because she hadn't done anything."
The next day Stacey told her mum the graveyard rape story.
Jane recalled: "I was sickened but of course I believed every word she said.
"Stacey didn't want me to go to the police but I said we had to - these men had to be caught."
Stacey was interviewed and told that DNA tests on her baby after it was born might identify her attacker.
Hospital scans revealed she was already 35 weeks pregnant. Jane added: "She was still a child herself, too young to be a mum.
"Watching my daughter go through that at such a young age was horrible but she hardly made any fuss. She had a little boy - but neither of us was prepared for how gorgeous he was.
"My heart went out to him. He'd had a rotten start in life but we were going to make sure he was loved."
Stacey spent two days with Max in hospital before a foster mum took him away.
Jane said: "The house felt so empty the night we came home and we cried and cried. In only a couple of days we had fallen in love with him.
"The next morning I took one look at Stacey and knew we had made the wrong decision. We phoned social services and said we wanted him back.
"I hadn't seen Stacey smile so much in months."
The family then waited for the results of the DNA swab taken from Max.
Meanwhile, Tovey had been involved in a car accident which left him fighting for his life in hospital.
Jane said: "I visited him a few times and told him what was going on.
"He never batted an eyelid when I said I was concerned the DNA test was taking a long time.
"I even took the baby in. y held his hand and coo-cooed over him."
A week after Tovey was sent home, detectives knocked at Jane's door to tell her he was the rapist.
The stunned mum said: "I was devastated that a man I had trusted with my kids could do this. Stacey kept saying it wasn't him. But later she opened up to a close friend.
"She said he had raped her twice while I was at work and that he had frightened her into keeping quiet."
This week Tovey, from Cinderford, Glos, was given a tough new "indeterminate" sentence after admitting two counts of rape at Gloucester Crown Court. He can only be freed if a parole panel deem he is no longer a danger to the public. Judge Jamie Tabor QC branded the crime "undiluted wickedness".
Jane said: "The only good thing to come out of this is the baby.
"I'm responsible for a lot of his day-to-day care because I feel it's important that Stacey is still allowed her childhood.
"As she gets older, she will have to take on more and more responsibility.
"But she knows that whatever happens, I will always be here for her."
And Stacey added: "I know it's going to be hard work - I'm still at school and I want to do well.
"But I also want to give my baby all the love and attention he needs."
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