The dad of two brothers who were dubbed as “ghost children” due to having little contact with society and speaking their own primitive language said he was not a “bogeyman”
Images of a remote farm show the shocking conditions a pair of brothers, aged nine and six, lived in whilst still wearing nappies and remaining “unknown” to the world.
Emergency services arrived at the ramshackle farm in Lauriano, near Turin, in northern Italy, amid a flood warning and found the brothers still wearing nappies and only able to communicate in a primitive language. When officers arrived, they described the children as “filthy” and cut off from society, having not been registered with schools or local doctors.
Shocking images taken outside the home show the children living in squalor, with rubbish littering the garden, broken furniture left outside as well as derelict trampolines left to rot in the sun. The siblings were born in Germany before moving to Italy and have since been removed from their parents by the order of Turin Juvenile Court.
Local media dubbed the siblings the “ghost children” over how they were outside the system and unknown to authorities. Their 54-year-old Dutch sculptor father, named only as Frederik by Italian outlet Corriere Della Sera, said he bought the farm for an estimated €120,000 (£103,000) three years ago.
“I hope they (juvenile services) do their investigation quickly because the truth will drop all charges,” Frederik said, adding he sees the children once every two weeks. “I will fight until they are returned to us. We want to live in Italy, in this wonderful country that has gone too far in taking our children away from us… I am not the bogeyman and I miss them so much.
“During this whole period we still gave the children an education, in English and Italian using some websites,” he added. “I know, we should have reported it to the municipality, the intention was to do it soon but my wife has health problems and there was no time. They are not ghosts, they have a name and surname and are registered in Germany.”
Frederik then insisted the children were “fine now and they were fine, very good, before.” He then showed off photos from inside the farmhouse, showing a “futuristic” kitchen, living room, complete with a big screen TV and computer, as well as the children’s bedroom with two “perfectly” made beds.
The dad, who described himself as a visual artist and aluminium welder, told Italian reporters they could not enter the house, claiming his 38-year-old wife, of Moroccan origin, was unwell.
Frederik reportedly told media he raised his sons in isolation due to concerns about COVID-19 and stated he and the children moved back and forth before settling in Italy with the home needing to be fixed up. “Three months before the flood we finally moved in,” he told the Italian outlet.
But the prosecutor’s office in Turin claimed the children were neglected. The magistrate added: “The mother is absent or disinterested, the father forces them into isolation.
“We have filed an appeal to open the adoptability procedure on which the court will have to decide,” said prosecutor Emma Avezzù.