In Italy, it is an affair which creates tensions up to the government of Giorgia Meloni. The controversy continues to grow over the fact that the courts ordered the removal of three children from the home of their family living in the woods.
The Prime Minister is said to be concerned by the treatment reserved for this Anglo-Australian family living independently since 2021 near Chieti, in the Abruzzo hills 200 kilometers east of Rome.
The judge threatened online
On Thursday, the juvenile court in nearby L’Aquila suspended the couple’s parental authority and ordered the children to be transferred to a home with their mother. The court cited the poor sanitary conditions of the house where the children live and the unauthorized home schooling of the eight-year-old daughter and six-year-old twins.
The decision sparked a wave of online threats against the judge, while a petition to “save the family living in the woods” had collected more than 135,000 signatures as of Monday.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the League (far right) Matteo Salvini denounced the judge’s decisions as “unworthy, worrying, dangerous and shameful”, going so far as to describe the legal procedure as a “kidnapping” of minors. “Let the judges and social workers of Abruzzo not bother us,” he said, emphasizing the need for judicial reform.
Championing a “stress-free” lifestyle in harmony with nature, Australian Catherine Birmingham and Briton Nathan Trevallion told national television Rai this month that their children “grow better” in the woods. During one tour, they showed off a wood-burning stove in a kitchen, colorful children’s beds covered in stuffed animals and Christmas lights scattered around the house. Solar panels provide electricity while the dry toilets are located in a cabin outside. A donkey, a horse, dogs, cats, chickens and ducks wander in a clearing among the trees.
An upcoming referendum on justice
But according to local media, the children are not vaccinated and do not go to school. Social workers were called last year after one of the couple’s children was hospitalized for ingesting toxic mushrooms, according to media reports. The Ministry of Instruction and Merit, however, clarified on Monday that the education obligation was respected at home, in connection with a local establishment.
Our file on Italy
The case arises in a context of debate on the power of judges, while Giorgia Meloni’s flagship justice reform – which provides for a separation of the careers of judges and prosecutors – must be submitted to a referendum in early 2026. The judges have denounced government interference in this reform, claiming that it would limit their independence, while the government accuses the judiciary of political bias.
