The decision by an Italian court to remove three children being brought up in the woods from their British-Australian parents has sparked a fierce debate in the country over alternative lifestyles.<\/p>\n
Nathan Trevallion, a former chef from Bristol, and his wife, Catherine Birmingham, a former horse-riding teacher from Melbourne, bought a dilapidated property in a wooded area in Palmoli, in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, in 2021.<\/p>\n
The aim was to raise their three children \u2013 Utopia Rose, eight, and six-year-old twins Galorian and Bluebell \u2013 as close to nature as possible.<\/p>\n
They grew their own food, generated electricity via solar power and extracted their water from a well. Meanwhile, the children, surrounded by horses, donkeys and chickens, were homeschooled. Weekly trips to San Salvo, a town on the Adriatic coast with a population of 20,000, exposed them to the outside world.<\/p>\n
But the idyllic life came under scrutiny from local social services in September last year when the entire family was hospitalised after eating poisonous mushrooms picked from the woods.<\/p>\n
The authorities investigated further and found the family\u2019s dwelling to be \u201cdilapidated, in terrible hygienic conditions and lacking the necessary utilities\u201d, a court document showed.<\/p>\n
Last week, the judge of a juvenile court in L\u2019Aquila upheld a prosecutor\u2019s claims that the children were suffering from \u201cserious and harmful violations\u201d of their rights owing to living off-grid, and ordered their removal. They were taken away by police on Thursday afternoon and taken to a church-run facility. Their mother is with them, although both parents have limited access to their children, according to their lawyer, Giovanni Angelucci.<\/p>\n
In its ruling, the juvenile court noted that \u201cthe family unit lives in housing hardship\u201d and has \u201cno social interaction, no fixed income\u201d, while the home \u201chas no toilet facilities\u201d and \u201cthe children do not attend school\u201d.<\/p>\n
As they awaited the court\u2019s decision, Trevallion and Birmingham gave several interviews to the press, generating support from thousands who signed an online petition calling for the family to be kept together.<\/p>\n
Trevallion described the children\u2019s removal as \u201ca great heartbreak\u201d that had caused them \u201cshock\u201d. \u201cIt was the worst night of my life,\u201d he told the local news site, Il Centro<\/a>, the day after the children were taken away, adding that in the care facility they were made to sleep in a separate room to their mother. \u201cThis is the hardest thing,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s a terrible situation.\u201d<\/p>\n