EastEnders: Ricky Jr is the father of Lily’s baby – what’s the law on what happens now?

EastEnders teenager Lily Slater is pregnant and the father of the baby has been revealed as Ricky Jr.

In tonight’s EastEnders (Wednesday, January 4 2023) Lily confessed to her mum, Stacey, and nan, Jean, that Ricky Mitchell is the father of her child.

But what does this mean for Ricky and Lily?

EastEnders: Ricky is revealed as the father of Lily’s baby

At the Slaters’ New Year party Stacey found Lily in the garden being sick.

Later Lily, Jean and Eve all passed out and it turned out there was a carbon monoxide leak in the house.

However at the hospital, doctors discovered Lily is pregnant.

They told Stacey who was shocked. When Lily woke up, Stacey told Lily about the pregnancy and she was devastated.

The police and social services got involved due to the fact Lily is 12.

In tonight’s scenes Stacey tried to figure out who got Lily pregnant.

In the street Stacey saw 12-year-old Ricky Mitchell waving to Lily, who was in her bedroom.

Lily soon noticed Stacey and backed away from the window.

Stacey confronted Lily, who admitted that she slept with Ricky once but they weren’t in a relationship.

Now Lily has confessed that Ricky is the dad, what does this mean for Ricky?

Is he in legal trouble?

Are Ricky and Lily in trouble with the law?

In England, the age of consent is 16 years old.

This means that technically both Ricky and Lily have committed a crime, as they are both 12.

Ricky could potentially be charged with rape and Lily could be charged with sexual assault of a child under 13.

However the police would look at the ages of both children. Although they cannot legally consent, if there is no coercion or manipulation involved, they likely won’t face prosecution.

The law around consent

Jamie Pellman, Head of Criminal Defence at London’s leading Criminal Defence Lawyer’s Britton & Time told Entertainment Daily: “Though offences have been committed by both parties, if there is a lack of coercion or manipulation, and there is consent in a general sense, not a legal sense, then it is unlikely that either party will face prosecution.”

Ruth Peters, director and solicitor at Olliers told us: “Under the sexual offences Act 2003, children under the age of 13 are not considered competent to give consent to sexual activity and penetrative sex is classed as rape.

“Therefore it is a criminal offence for anyone to be involved in any sexual act (including sexual intercourse) with anyone under the age of 13 whether the young person agrees or not, on the basis that anyone under the age of 13 lacks the capacity to give valid consent to any sexual act.”

Ruth continued: “If the sexual act was consensual and both individuals under 13 are fairly close in age and development, a prosecution is unlikely to be appropriate or in the public interest.

“The CPS guide states ‘there is a fine line between sexual experimentation and offending and in general children under 13 should not be criminalised for sexual behaviour in the absence of coercion, exploitation or abuse of trust.”

Read more: EastEnders cast 2023: Meet the full Walford line-up

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