According to reports, Giuseppina Tittaferrante takes over the case of the British-Australian couple and their three children, known as the ‘family of the woods’. The Abruzzo Order of Social Workers opens proceedings against their previous social worker who removed the children from their off-grid family.
The so-called “Family in the Woods” — a British-Australian couple and their three children taken into care last year over their off-the-grid lifestyle in an Abruzzo forest — is reportedly being given a new social worker. The professional previously handling the case was placed under disciplinary proceedings.
The case has been reassigned to Giuseppina Tittaferrante. This follows the decision by the Abruzzo Order of Social Workers to open proceedings against Veruska D’Angelo, over alleged breaches of the profession’s code of ethics relating to her public statements and an allegedly hostile attitude towards the couple, according to reports.
Lawyer denies D’Angelo has been “replaced”
Luca Bauccio, the lawyer representing D’Angelo, told ANSA that assigning a new social worker to the case did not amount to his client being replaced. He stressed that she remained involved and that additional members had simply been added to the team.
He added that D’Angelo welcomed the disciplinary process as a chance to set the record straight, saying the documentation would show she had acted correctly throughout.
Gradual reunification under way
Last week a court for minors in L’Aquila ruled that the children could be reunited with their parents, Nathan Trevallion and Catherine Birmingham. However, it said the process would need to happen gradually, in stages, and under close supervision from social services. The couple have been seeking to get their children back since last November.
At the end of April, the same court had ruled inadmissible the couple’s appeal against an earlier juvenile court decision to remove the mother from the foster home where the three children had been living.
Background to the case
The family had been living in a house without electricity or running water in woods near Palmoli, in central Abruzzo. The children were taken into care after being poisoned by mushrooms, amid wider concerns about their safety, education and opportunities to socialise with other children.
The case has drawn considerable attention in Italy, with Premier Giorgia Meloni and other government figures voicing concern over how social services handled it, alongside broad public sympathy for the parents.
