The decision to remove three children – an eight-year-old girl and six-year-old twins – from a family living isolated in a forested area in Palmoli, in the Abruzzo region, is generating heated debate in Italy. The case, which brings together issues of child protection, educational freedom and state intervention, gained a national dimension after the arrival of top political figures and accusations of interference in justice.
At issue is an Anglo-Australian couple who decided to live in an isolated forested area, without running water or electricity, to enjoy a direct connection to nature. However, everything changed after mushroom poisoning, in October 2024, which took the five family members to hospital and triggered an investigation by Italian social services.
After several inspections, the L’Aquila Juvenile Court ordered the transfer of the three minors to an educational community in Vasto. The measure allows the mother to stay with the children during a period of observation, while the father continues to live in the house in the woods.
To support the sentence, the The court cited three factors: extreme isolation, poor housing conditions and media exposure for children. The judges highlighted that the minors did not attend school, had no contact with other children and lived in an environment without conditions of hygiene, safety or stability. The sentence also states that the lack of social life jeopardizes fundamental rights guaranteed by the Italian Constitution.
The family’s lawyer, Giovanni Angelucci, speaks of a “decision full of falsehoods” and guarantees that the children’s home education was documented. It also states that the parents raised the children “with affection” and that life in the forest “never compromised the health or safety of the minors”.
The children’s father, Nathan Trevallion, does not hide his pain and told the Italian media that the State intervention “destroyed the lives of five people”, that the children were “traumatized” and that there was no reason to take them from a home where, he says, “they were happy”. The appeal against the court’s decision has already been filed and should be analyzed in the coming days.