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Caked in make-up and looking far older than her tender years, Elena Chiritescu has experienced more of life than other little girls her age.

On October 26, Elena, aged just 10, gave birth naturally to a baby girl named Nicoleta who weighed 6lb 6oz - the baby's father was her 13-year-old cousin Gheorghe Mecic.

The couple - pictured here when Elena was three months' pregnant - are no longer together.

For Elena life grew hard when she was five. Her father died in Bucharest, Romania, and, crippled by poverty, her mother Olimpia went to work in Spain. The young girl was left with her grandmother.

Olympia's sister followed, also leaving Gheorghe in the care of his grandmother.

Initially Elena and Gheorghe hid their relationship, but when the pregnancy became impossible to disguise the girl's gran, Petra Tiberie, let them live as husband and wife.

A relative said: "The youngsters seemed to love one another and planned to bring up the child together. Gipsy children grow up quickly and look older than they are."

Shortly before baby Nicoleta was due, Elena's mother took her to Spain where the child was born in Jerez de la Frontera. Gheorge stayed in Romania.

Mum and baby are now living in a threestorey block in the Andalusian town of Lebrija. New grandmother Olimpia said: "These things are normal in our country. Girls get married at 10, so we don't understand why people are so surprised.

"Elena is very well, just like her daughter who's also doing very well and is very pretty.

"Elena and Nicoleta will stay in Spain because her relationship with the baby's father has ended. We have a house, we have everything we need." The family denied that they earned their money by begging.

Romanian law allows girls to marry at 18 or 16 with parents' permission. But arranged marriages as young as 10 are common among the country's 1.5 million Romas.

Britain's youngest mum Tressa Middleton from Armadale, West Lothian, gave birth at the age of 12 in 2006.