The children of an Australian mother living off-grid in an Italian forest have been removed by local authorities, after the family came under scrutiny when they were hospitalised due to eating poisonous mushrooms.
A juvenile court in the Italian city of L'Aquila ruled last week to place the three children of Australian woman Catherine Birmingham and her British husband Nathan Trevallion into protective care.
The court cited poor sanitary conditions at the family's home in the mountainous Abruzzo region and unauthorised homeschooling of their eight-year-old daughter and six-year-old twin boys, according to AFP.
Ms Birmingham, a life coach and former horse riding teacher from Melbourne, bought the farmhouse in 2021 with Mr Trevallion, a former chef from Bristol.
They were raising the children in the woodland home without mains electricity, water or gas, relying instead on solar power, well water and homegrown food.
"The members of the Trevallion family have no social interactions, no steady income," the court said in its written ruling.
"There are no sanitary facilities in the dwelling and the children do not attend school."
Reuters has reported the family's alternative lifestyle came to the attention of police last year after the whole family was hospitalised with mushroom poisoning.
The court suspended the couple's parental responsibility on Thursday and ordered the children be transferred to a protective home.
Ms Birmingham was allowed to accompany the children to their new accommodation after the couple's lawyer argued her presence was needed to limit the children's trauma.
Local media had reported the children were not vaccinated and the parents failed to submit their request for homeschooling to Italian authorities.
But Italy's education ministry issued a statement on Monday saying "compulsory schooling has been regularly completed through home education," which is legal in Italy, according to news agencies.
The couple defended their lifestyle as "one without stress" and said their children were "growing up better" in a recent interview with Italy's public broadcaster Rai.
"The children are happy, healthy. We haven't done anything wrong if we want to return to nature," Ms Birmingham told Rai in broken Italian this month.
Mr Trevallion told local newspaper Il Centro on Friday the children's removal was "the worst night of my life".
"Taking children away from a parent is the greatest pain there is … it's an injustice," he said.
The case has also sparked intense debate in Italy over alternative lifestyles and more than 135,000 people have signed an online petition backing the family.
Italy's deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini and head of the far-right League party condemned the court decision, saying it was "shameful that the state interferes in private education and personal life choices".
The Magistrates' associations have defended the ruling to remove the children.
"We reject any form of exploitation expressed in recent days by some political factions and the media, which fail to consider the complexity and sensitivity of the rights in question," said the Italian Association of Magistrates for Minors and for the Family.
In a press release, it said the court's decision came after a year-long observation period "during which the court's orders were systematically disregarded by the parents".
In an online fundraiser launched prior to the children's removal, Ms Birmingham said the family was "met by the controlling forces" of Italy's Carabinieri military police and social services in September 2024 and "forced to flee our property and home due to threats of our children being taken".
"This horrific experience has caused us to stand and fight for our rights under Natural Law to live off-grid and raise our children from home in nature," she wrote.
A lawyer for the parents, Giovanni Angelucci, did not respond to AFP's requests for comment.
ABC/wires
