The L’Aquila Juvenile Court decided to remove the couple’s three children, considering that they were living subject to “serious damage to physical and psychological integrity”. The case has generated strong controversy in Italy, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini criticizing the court decision.
Italian authorities recently removed three children, an 8-year-old girl and 6-year-old twins, from an Anglo-Australian couple who live in a forest in the Abruzzo region, in a house without running water or electricity. The decision, taken by the Juvenile Court in L’Aquila, has generated a strong controversy.
Nathan Trevallion, a 51-year-old Brit, and his Australian-born wife, Catherine Birmingham, 45, moved in 2021 to a rural house in Palmoli, in the province of Chieti (Abruzzo), with the aim of raising children in the middle of nature.
Apparently, the family lived happily. However, the authorities’ attention was drawn in September 2024, when the entire family was hospitalized after ingesting wild mushrooms.
At the time, health professionals filed a complaint, which gave rise to an investigation by the authorities and the Public Ministry.
After the investigation, technicians concluded that the family lived in a casa which onpiped water or electricity e with several humidity problemswhich could favor “the development of lung diseases”.
Furthermore, it was mentioned that the family lived in social isolationthat the children did not attend school and that the family did not have any social interaction not fixed incomewhich, according to technicians, “it hinders the development of essential social, emotional and cognitive skills, making it more difficult for children to adapt to both the educational system and society in general.”
Based on these findings, the L’Aquila Family and Juvenile Court decided to remove the couple’s three children, considering that they were living subject to “serious damage to physical and psychological integrity”.
Father says he doesn’t understand the situationo
The minors were sent to a shelter home, where the mother was also taken, although I can’t always be with them.
Cited by La Repubblica, the father says he doesn’t understand the situationo:
“They didn’t call us ‘bad parents’. They simply don’t like what we do. Children grow up outside the system, and I think that’s why we are persecuted. We are not doing anything wrong. We live happily, in contact with nature,” he said. “Why do they want to take children away from a family that is the happiest in the world? They are destroying the lives of five happy people,” he assured.
The case has generated a strong polarization in Italy. While some defend the family, considering that the separation of children is an excessive penalty for an alternative lifestyleothers maintain that State intervention is necessary in the name of child protection.
The decision was widely criticized by prominent political figures.
A prime minister Giorgia Meloni was one of the most heard voices. According to the newspaper Il Sole 24 OreMelons stated that she was “alarmed” by the Juvenile Court’s decision and requested the Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio, an assessment to determine whether “there are reasons” for such a measure.
Still according Il Sole 24 Oreo Deputy Prime Minister and League leader Matteo Salvini, also spoke about the case, calling the judges’ decision “rapture”.
