Three children of a British father who were removed by social services in Italy because of their parents’ off-grid lifestyle have been in care for seven weeks and are self-harming, the family’s lawyer has claimed.
The children, aged between six and eight, were taken into care in November after their parents, the British former chef Nathan Trevallion, 51, and Catherine Birmingham, 45, an Australian, moved them to a remote stone cottage in the Abruzzo woods to live without running water or an electricity connection.
Italian social workers raised the alarm when the family were found unconscious by a neighbour after they accidentally ate poisonous mushrooms foraged in the woods and needed urgent hospital treatment.
The authorities also challenged the children’s absence from school and the family’s use of an outdoor pit toilet at the cottage near Palmoli, which they moved to in 2021. As judges continue to deliberate on the future of the family, the children are scratching themselves and creating “small wounds” due to stress and guilt, said the family’s lawyer Marco Femminella.
“They can see no reason for being held in a care home and are taking the blame, saying, ‘What did we do wrong?’,” Femminella told The Times. “Meanwhile we are still waiting on the courts, which shut down over Christmas,” he added.
The claims of the children’s condition are set to further inflame a national debate over their fate in Italy, where over 150,000 have signed a petition calling for their release. The petition has been backed by right-wing politicians including the deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini.
Since their arrival at a care home in Vasto near Palmoli, the daughters, Utopia Rose, 8, and Bluebell, 6, and her twin brother Galorian, have been allowed to see their father for one hour, twice a week. Their mother has been billeted on another floor of the centre and is allowed to see them at meal times.
Femminella said that the objections raised by social services had been dealt with. A local entrepreneur has lent the family a house with an indoor toilet, which they can use until they install one at their cottage. A deal has been struck with the local council to monitor their home schooling and guarantees have been given that the children will socialise with other children.
“But now they want a psychological report on the parents, even though there is no reason to doubt their parental capabilities,” Femminella said. “It appears that the experts have doubts about the choice of living close to nature. Do they think that is a sign of being psychologically disturbed?”
A meeting between court-appointed experts and the parents is scheduled for January 23. Tonino Cantemi, a psychiatrist assisting the family, said after he met Birmingham on Monday that she was was “collapsing” mentally.
“She feels her children are suffering,” he told the local newspaper Il Centro. Femminella added: “The children are meanwhile spending time with other children at the centre who have their own problems… They are undoubtedly suffering psychological damage.”