Acid-attack couple's kid to be adopted (3)

(ANSA) - Milan, March 6 - An appeals court in Milan on Monday upheld an October children's court verdict annulling the parental rights of ex-Bocconi University student Martina Levato and her broker ex-boyfriend Alexander Boettcher who were convicted for acid attacks in 2014, confirming that their 19-month-old son can be adopted.
    The court rejected appeals from the former couple. In particular, it rejected three alternative appeals from Levato: that she should be allowed to bring up her son in prison facilities; that she should be allowed visitation rights at the home of the boy's future adoptive parents; or that she be allowed to see her son at her maternal grandparents. The court upheld an earlier ruling that the toddler's biological parents and their families can have no relationship with the boy and that he can be placed for adoption with immediate effect.
    Levato and Boettcher, who have been jailed since December 2014, were sentenced to a total of 28 and 37 years in prison respectively in two separate trials on attacks they carried out against men with whom Levato had had a relationship.
    Levato's jail term was recently cut from 28 to 20 years.
    In rejecting custody for the boy with his birth parents, the children's court highlighted a "worrying" lack of insight into the gravity of their crimes.