Ex of Shoreham air disaster victim found out a week after his funeral that he’d got a girl, 16, pregnant
A YOUNG mum whose ex was killed in the Shoreham air disaster learned a week after his funeral that he had got a teenage girl pregnant.
Heartbroken Tanya Hewstone, 22, said her world fell apart when she received a text from a 16-year-old girl giving her the devastating news.
Construction worker Daniele Polito, 23, was one of 11 people killed when display pilot Andy Hill’s vintage Hawker Hunter jet ploughed into the A27 next to Shoreham airfield one year ago tomorrow.
At his funeral his son Georgio, four, placed a packet of jelly beans on top of the coffin and said: “Bye bye Daddy, you can have my sweets.”
But days later Tanya received the message from a teenage girl saying she was expecting Daniele’s child.
The baby is now three months old and DNA tests prove it is Daniele’s.
Tanya said: “I had no idea about this girl at all.
“After the funeral she messaged me to let me know she was carrying Daniele’s child.
“I was really shocked at her age.
“Why would Daniele have a 16-year-old girl when he was nearly 24?
“How can I explain to my little boy that Daddy’s had a baby when Daddy’s no longer here?
“I always said to myself when Daniele was alive that if he was to have another baby I’d turn into a right jealous bitch.
Daniele said, 'I want you — I want our family back'
“But it’s not like that.
“I don’t feel jealous.
“At first I felt a little bit spiteful but now I’m just trying to get my head around it.
“I’ve not met her.
“I’ve seen a picture of the baby on social media.
“I was expecting the baby to be his because he does look like Daniele.”
Tanya, of Rustington, West Sussex, met Daniele when she was 15 and had Georgio two years later.
She said: “Daniele was there when Georgio was born, the whole 23 hours.
“He was the first one to hold him, I was too scared.
“I didn’t get him back for two hours.
“Daniele was besotted with him.
“He was a really good dad.
“He put everything into Georgio.
“He was so proud.”
She added: “People say when you have a baby your life stops.
“It doesn’t.
“My life started when I had Georgio.
“That’s the honest truth.
“He’s my life and I knew when I fell pregnant he would be my life.
“I wanted a baby with Daniele.”
But the couple’s four-year relationship came to an end ten months before Daniele died.
Tanya said: “Every relationship has bumps, but we had mountains.
“In the last argument we had he told me, ‘We’re like pink and red, Tanya. Lovely colours but we clash’.
“Everyone has their bad points but Daniele was one of those people that you couldn’t get too angry with because he’d make you smile just by looking at him.
“Three weeks before the accident Daniele rang me.
“It’s one of the hardest things I can’t get over.
“He was saying, ‘I really want you. I want our family back — I’m sorry we split up’.
“But I told him ‘I’m sorry I don’t love you’.”
After the couple broke up, Daniele continued to see Georgio twice a week and paid maintenance for him.
But Tanya said she now faces a battle for the maximum payout for Georgio.
That is because the teen who has had his child can claim a share in the £35,000-plus compensation Georgio could get for the loss of his dad.
Tanya told The Sun on Sunday: “What is the point in the lawyers asking me how much Daniele paid and how often he saw Georgio if they’re going to give money to a child that Daniele never knew about.
“I don’t agree with that at all.
“There’s a balloon release for Daniele for the anniversary and I know this girl is going to be there.
“I don’t want to go because I don’t want Georgio knowing about this baby until he is old enough to understand.”
Every day since Daniele died, Tanya has had to try to explain to Georgio that his daddy is not coming back.
She said: “It was my birthday last week and my little boy was sat there eating his cereal crying because he wanted his dad.
“He still misses Daniele desperately.
“He talks about him all the time and wants to play football with his daddy again.
“I told him Daddy’s had an accident with an aeroplane and has gone up to the sky.
“Georgio had a little Minion toy in his room and one day he said ‘Mummy, you need to take that Minion out of the room’.
“I asked him why and he said, ‘Because it told me Daddy is hurt’.
“I said, ‘Georgio, no it didn’t’.
“But he said, ‘Just take it’. So I did.
“He would often pick up his coat and tell me he was going to get Daddy because he knew that Granny was upset.
“I bought a DVD that explains to children about losing their parents but he had no interest in it.
“So I sat him down and said, ‘Georgio, it’s not just you who can’t see Daddy any more, it’s everybody.
“Granny, Grandad, no one can see Daddy any more because he’s gone to heaven.”
Georgio recently flew to Thailand on holiday with Daniele’s parents, Leslye and Nino.
Tanya said: “Georgio came back and told me, ‘I went up in the sky but why didn’t I see Daddy?’
“It’s a daily struggle mentally because he cannot understand that his daddy is dead.
The pilot took my little boy's father away
“He keeps asking me why it happened.”
One year on, the victims’ families still do not know the answer.
The pilot of the Hawker Hunter jet, Andy Hill, 52, was trying to do a loop-the-loop when the crash happened.
He remains at the centre of a manslaughter investigation by Sussex Police.
Meanwhile relatives are still waiting for the final report into the crash to be published by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch, as well as for inquests to take place.
Rev Terry Stratford referred to the strain of the delays during his address to the 300-strong congregation, saying: “As much as we might wish otherwise, there seems to be no option but to wait.
“There can be no real moving on until all that can be humanly known about the air crash is revealed and resolved.”
Tanya is also desperate for the full truth to come out about the crash and fireball that left Daniele almost unidentifiable.
She said: “Daniele was identified because he had Georgio’s name tattooed on his back.
“The pilot still hasn’t been charged.
“I don’t hate him but obviously I think badly of him.
“He took my little boy’s father away.
“I don’t think he should be done for murder because he didn’t intentionally do it.
“Manslaughter, yes.
“He definitely deserves some form of punishment because if I went out in a car and killed 11 people I’d have a lot of hatred towards me.
“He can’t just get away with it.”
She added: “Financially life is hard but Georgio goes to school next month and I will be able to go to work to support him.
“If Daniele had lived we would have been able to do a lot for him.
“Now the compensation can do what Daniele can’t do.
“It will set him up for when he is older, maybe buy him a house or a car.
“In my bedroom I’ve got a box where I have kept every newspaper article about the crash, things of Daniele’s and memories from the funeral.
“When Georgio is older I can show him what happened to Daddy so he won’t need to ask questions because he will know the truth.”
When approached last night, the new teenage mum did not deny Daniele was her baby’s father.
She said: “It’s been a difficult year all round and I find it hard talking about it at all to be honest.”
Tomorrow, victims’ families will gather in Shoreham to mark the anniversary with a minute’s silence at 1.22pm, the time of the crash.