Italian court clears path for reunion of off-grid family

MILAN- A British-Australian couple will be allowed to spend more time with their three children after the youngsters were removed from the family's off-grid woodland home in central Italy last year, their lawyer said on Tuesday.

The Juvenile Court of L'Aquila has approved a staged process under the supervision of social services that could ultimately allow the children to leave the residential care facility where they have been living since November.

Under the court's plan, British father Nathan Trevallion and Australian mother Catherine Birmingham will gradually be able to spend more time with their children in a home environment.

"The ruling partially revises previous court decisions and sets out a gradual reunification process, allowing the children to return home for daytime visits immediately and, from October, for weekend overnight stays with their family," lawyer Simone Pillon said.

The decision marks a significant turning point in a case that sparked a national debate in Italy over alternative lifestyles and state intervention in family life.

Social services will monitor the process and assess the children's reintegration before any permanent reunification can take place.

Pillon said the family planned an appeal in order to pursue a more rapid and complete process to bring the family back together.

The court suspended the couple's parental responsibility in an order issued on November 20 last year.

Since then, the couple's three children, a nine-year-old girl and twin boys aged seven, have been housed in a residential care facility.

Birmingham remained with the children until March when she was ordered to leave under a new court ruling based on recommendations from social services.

The case first drew public attention last year after Italian authorities examined the family's living conditions in a remote farmhouse in the Abruzzo region.

A court ruling issued in November said the family had no significant social interactions, no stable income and lacked adequate sanitary facilities. The children were being homeschooled.

The family's situation first came to the attention of authorities after all five family members were taken to hospital following mushroom poisoning.

Reporting by Emilio Parodi, editing by Keith Weir/Reuters