The TUI holiday rep, the target of an acid attack near Alvor in May 2017, has been in court in Portimão to give evidence.On trial is Chessell’s former boyfriend who is accused of hiring a hit man to carry out the attack which, said Ellie, has 'ruined her life'.
Ellie Chessell, 29, has been giving evidence against Claudio Gouveia who is charged with attempted murder. Her lawyers successfully petitioned the three judges to have the accused man removed from court while she gave evidence but the effect of appearing in court just a few kilometres from where the attack took place, was evident as she left the court room in tears.
Ellie told the court, through an interpreter, "I should have ended the relationship way before I did. If I had done, my family wouldn't have been affected like they were, I wouldn't be sitting here and this mess wouldn't have happened.”
“There is nothing else I can do to repair the physical damage. The scars will last forever. I cannot get the sun on my skin as there is a high risk of cancer.”
The rep for the holiday company, TUI, is back living with her mother, Diana Newman, in their home town of Newport, Isle of Wight and said she faces questions all the time about what happened.
The hit man, Edmundo Helder Rodrigues Fonseca, was tracked down to a Ugandan prison, faced with drugs charges. He has just been arrested in Belgium and will be extradited to Portugal to face charges relating to his part in the acid attack.
The reason for the attack appears to be that Ellie finally walked out on Gouveia after he had assaulted her one time too many, two months before the attack.
The reason for the attack appears to be that Ellie finally walked out on Gouveia after he had assaulted her one time too many, two months before the attack.
Gouveia discovered that Ellie had relocated to the Algarve after leaving the home they had shared in his native Madeira.
Ellie was lured to the area where Rodrigues Fonseca attacked her by dousing her with acid near a four-star hotel where she was working. Fonseca had pretended to be a called Diogo, said he was a well-off businessman and set up a dinner date using a fake Tinder account.
One of Gouveia’s messages to Ellie, dated April 3 2016, read, “I'm going to find you and I will take your head off. You are a slut and you are going to die.”
Chessell, in her late 20s, suffered second and third degree burns over 60% of her body after two litres of acid were thrown over her in the unprovoked attack on the public road between Intermarché and the Hospital Particular in Alvor, Portimão.
Shown a picture of Rodrigues Fonseca by one of the three women judges and asked if he was the man who had attacked her, Ellie replied, 'Yes.'
Ellie's mother told the court, “At the beginning everything seemed okay. They lived six months in the UK. He seemed a very charming man at first but I started noticing he wanted to control her in little ways. When I spent a week in Madeira he was very controlling all the time. He always had her arm round Ellie. Whenever we said a joke he wanted to know what was happening.”
Diane Newman added that Gouveia also had sent her threatening messages after his break-up with Ellie in March 2017. One warned that he would burn her daughter's face.
Gouveia is pleading not guilty to attempted murder. The trial will continue next month and Rodrigues Fonseca will be tried separately after he is extradited from Belgium.
