The three children will spend the weekend of 17 and 18 October at their parents' home in Palmoli, with no one outside the family present, according to lawyer Simone Pillon.
The Juvenile Court of L'Aquila ordered the removal in November 2025, and the children are now housed in a care home in Vasto.
Daytime meetings began in September. On 22 September the children first entered the new house, and on 29 September they spent about an hour and a half with the couple at the Palmoli cottage.
Palmoli's municipality made a house available to the couple free of charge for two years, and the mayor, Giuseppe Masciulli, said the housing requirement had been met.
Simone Pillon, the lawyer for Catherine Birmingham and Nathan Trevallion, announced on 16 October 2026 that the couple's three children will spend the weekend of 17 and 18 October at home with their parents. The stay will be unsupervised, meaning no one outside the family will be present. Pillon said the parents are very happy after more than 11 months of waiting. In his statement he said:
“We have just received wonderful news: the children will spend the next weekend at home with their parents, freely and without any presence outside the family.”
The children are currently housed in a care home in Vasto. The Juvenile Court of L'Aquila ordered the removal in November 2025 and suspended the parents' parental responsibility, which opened a long legal battle.
The weekend will take place in a house in Palmoli, in the province of Chieti, which the municipality has made available free of charge for two years. The children will sleep in their bedroom with Catherine and Nathan. The couple will have several hours alone with the three children. During the day the children may go back to the forest cottage where they lived before the removal, to see the animals and visit neighbours. The lawyer frames this as the second phase of reunification, a meeting without the presence of outsiders. Pillon also said:
“The road to full reunification is now in its final stretch.”
Daytime meetings began in September under educators appointed by social services. On 22 September the three siblings entered the new house for the first time, and on 29 September they returned to the cottage in Palmoli, where they spent about an hour and a half with the couple. Pillon described one earlier meeting as joyful and calm. A later meeting included games, ginger biscuits and a dinner cooked by Catherine. Giuseppe Masciulli, mayor of Palmoli, said the steps required of the couple had been completed:
“The housing problem no longer exists, the schooling problem no longer exists, the socialisation problem no longer exists.”
He added that the medical examinations requested had been carried out and that every psychologist and neuropsychiatrist involved had recommended a rapid reunion of the minors with their family.
Nathan Trevallion and Catherine Birmingham are a couple of Anglo-Australian origin with three children: two six-year-old twins and an eight-year-old eldest daughter. Before the removal the family lived in an isolated cottage in the woods near Palmoli, without running water or electricity. The couple had chosen to live without services that the court considered essential, as part of an alternative life close to nature. The removal triggered a long legal battle that Pillon now describes as nearing its final stage.
Pillon asked the press to respect the moment and give the family adequate privacy. The family has asked for the utmost discretion so it can experience the weekend fully. The lawyer said the aim is for the parents and the three children to spend these days together, away from the pressure and media attention that has followed the case for months. The announcement came in a written note from the lawyer.
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The three children, housed in a care home for more than 11 months, will spend the weekend of 17 and 18 October at their parents' house in Palmoli with no one outside the family present. The lawyer for Catherine Birmingham and Nathan Trevallion called it a step toward full reunification.
AI text based on reports by Tgcom24, Fanpage, il Giornale.it and other publishers. Published .