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Disappeared and Abducted Children and Young Adults => Portugal's missing children and child kidnapping cases. => Topic started by: John on October 18, 2012, 01:23:07 AM

Title: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on October 18, 2012, 01:23:07 AM
Mother has not seen daughter for 3 months

(http://i.imgur.com/zjaxBkw.jpg?1)

17 October 2012


(http://i.imgur.com/KnOk0nn.jpg?1) (http://i.imgur.com/oykjIzP.jpg?2)

Felipe Silva abducted daughter Ellie (right) while on a holiday to Portugal.

For three long months Candice Gannon has not see her daughter, Giselle Candice Kelly Silva, affectionately named as Ellie, aged seven.  The child's father, Philip Silva, 35, who resides in Vilamoura (Loulé), ignored an Order of the Faro Family and Minor Court and disappeared with their daughter.  In desperation, the mother created a website [http://reuniteellie.webs.com] to publicize the case and try to get clues to the whereabouts of the girl.  "The last time I saw Ellie was on the 15th of July. Her father and I agreed that Ellie would be with him for two weeks in the Algarve and should return on July 31, which did not happen," said Candice Gannon, 27, Irish and resident in Funchal on the island of Madeira.  Since then, she has only spoke with her daughter three times, most recently on 5 August.  "She seemed stressed or scared. Someone told her to answer only 'yes,' no ',' do not know' "she recalls.  Since then, she has only seen her ex-partner at a parental hearing on 6 September.  On September 13, the Faro Family and Minor Court issued a warrant of location and delivery of the child to the mother, the interdiction to leave the country and the inclusion of child's data in the Schengen Information System.  "It is very difficult not knowing if my daughter is alive or dead," lamented Candice, who filed a criminal complaint of subtraction of a minor, which is in the process of being investigated.

The CM attempted to contact Filipe Silva, but he did not answer our calls

www.cmjornal.xl.pt/nacional/sociedade/detalhe/mae-nao-sabe-da-filha-ha-3-meses.html

39
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on February 10, 2013, 09:01:11 PM
Father refuses to say where his daughter is

(http://i.imgur.com/zjaxBkw.jpg?1)

10 February 2013

He refused to say where his daughter Ellie (8) was after having kidnapped her for six months, and was placed in custody awaiting trial.  Filipe Silva, captured yesterday by the Judicial Police, was heard by a judge for more than 12 hours at the Court of Faro, and held the position of not cooperating with the Justice.  "I will not say anything until the trial," said the Vilamoura businessman at the court entrance.  According to the CM found, Filipe Silva, 34, was repeatedly warned to change his attitude and say where his daughter was.  However, he declined to cooperate with the authorities, who continued yesterday to make several attempts to locate little Ellie. 

The mother, Candice Kelly, told CM she was contacted by Portuguese police but never by Philip's family.  Are in panic. No news about her daughter.  "It is very disgusting not knowing where Ellie is. When the phone rings, you don't know if it will be good news or terrible," blurted the mother, adding that, "this is the most dangerous moment in Ellie's life."

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tyG4oDwhdik/ULaNmMNOm-I/AAAAAAAAAFY/cGqHpsr-_cA/s1600/GNR+ALERTA.jpg)

The child's grandmother assured the CM that Ellie is safe.  "She's fine but do not want to talk more about it. There will be an ideal time to talk and we will tell you all there," she said. 

The CM found before the capture Filipe Silva that the PJ had already prepared a trap in order to recover the child.  They planned to captured the father and expected to find and rescue the child safely in the next hours.

www.cmjornal.xl.pt/nacional/portugal/detalhe/pai-recusa-dizer-onde-esta-a-filha.html
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on May 22, 2013, 09:29:40 PM
Mum tells of nightmare wait to bring Ellie home after alleged kidnapping

(http://cdn3.independent.ie/incoming/article29077556.ece/067f5/ALTERNATES/h342/ellie.jpg)

Independent Ireland
18 February 2013

Candice Gannon with daughter Ellie Silva (8), husband Philip and younger daughter Olivia (2) in Madeira, Portugal.

THE mother of eight-year-old Ellie Silva, who was taken by her Portuguese father for seven months, has said she doesn't know when she'll be able to take her daughter home to Ireland.

Candice Gannon has spoken of her frustration over the slow-moving Portuguese legal system and her fear that the schoolgirl's father, Filipe Silva, may try to take his daughter again.

There is no restraining order against the 34-year-old businessman and joint parental authority granted to him by a Portuguese court last year means that he still has visitation rights and a say in where she lives.

Ms Gannon (27) said she did not know when Portuguese authorities would allow her to bring her daughter home to Ireland.

"It's just awful what's going on," she told the Irish Independent. "It's one thing after another. How much more do we have to go through as a family?"

(http://img.thesun.co.uk/aidemitlum/archive/01670/SNE1010AA---_1670631a.jpg)

Father Filipe Silva (left) on way to a previous Court appearance.

Mr Silva (34) allegedly kidnapped his daughter after he collected her from Ms Gannon at Dublin Airport last July for a two-week holiday.

Ms Gannon didn't see Ellie for seven months until they were reunited last week when Mr Silva's mother handed her granddaughter over to Portuguese authorities.

Mr Silva had been arrested four days earlier on February 8 and was released on bail while he is investigated on suspicion of kidnapping his daughter.

He has since given a TV interview in which he said he had no regrets about taking Ellie, vowing he would continue his efforts to win custody of his daughter.

Ms Gannon, meanwhile, remains on the Portuguese island of Madeira as she doesn't have permission to return to Ireland with Ellie. She has lived there for the past five years as the custody battle raged in the courts.

"I'm just so happy that I've got my daughter back and she's safe," she said. But she added: "What we're feeling sick about every day is, is he going to take her away from me again?

"It's a nightmare at the moment."

Ellie had "been through hell and back and she's going to need a lot of support", Ms Gannon said.

"She really doesn't need her father to come over and interrupt all of that and upset her because, ultimately, I'm an adult and he's an adult, but she's only eight years old and she's the one who's going to get affected in the long run."

Her husband, Irishman Philip Gannon, said it was always the family's intention to settle in Ireland but that they were "trapped" in Portugal due to Mr Silva's parental rights.

He said Ms Gannon had written to Mr Silva last summer asking for permission to move Ellie to Ireland but was refused.

Meanwhile, Ms Gannon rejected as "rubbish" allegations by Mr Silva in a Portuguese TV interview that she had changed his daughter's second name to Gannon, disrupted her education and stopped her from learning Portuguese.

In the interview he said that taking his daughter were the actions of a "desperate father, looking for the truth and the love of my daughter".

He added: "I will obviously continue to fight for my daughter.

www.independent.ie/irish-news/mum-tells-of-nightmare-wait-to-bring-ellie-home-after-alleged-kidnapping-29077032.html

Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: Mr Moderator on March 04, 2014, 06:38:13 PM
Shock court decision opens new can of worms in Ellie kidnap case

(http://i.imgur.com/Cc5v4Ht.jpg?1)
4 March 2014
By NATASHA DONN

(http://portugalresident.com/sites/default/files/styles/node-detail/public/field/image/728x410x070314_IT_ELLIE.JPG,qitok=azzeQnJl.pagespeed.ic.4YXYSZZa-p.webp)

A leaked court report has revealed extraordinary behind-the-scenes manoeuvres by an Albufeira magistrate in the high-profile abduction of nine-year-old British Ellie (Giselle Silva) by her Portuguese father, Filipe Silva.

The report, shown to the Resident over the weekend, itemises no less than 25 tapped phone conversations that took place between the magistrate and Ellie’s paternal grandmother early last year as the net tightened around Silva following seven-months ‘on-the-run’ with his daughter.

The conversations show that the magistrate was firmly on the side of Ellie’s father.

In one, she tells Silva’s mother: “Everyone knows it isn’t kidnapping…”; in another she advises the woman “not to worry” and tells her it is very important for her son to say “that he doesn’t want to make a statement” when questioned by police.

The fact that the inquiry went on to find that there was no evidence of complicity between the female magistrate and Filipe Silva has “appalled” even those outside the child’s Irish family.

Ellie’s mother Candice Gannon said at the weekend that even Portuguese people who have read the document are astounded - both by the involvement of a criminal prosecutor as by the decision of the high court of Évora “not to see anything wrong with the involvement”.

“Like everybody else, I am very concerned about this decision which seems to ignore the very obvious moral and ethical issues regarding the highly unusual level of help and assistance offered to an Algarvian ‘arguido’ by an Algarvian criminal public prosecutor,” she told us.

“Everybody I have spoken to agrees it is exactly as we thought it was all along - a case of out-and-out corruption in which Ellie and I never stood a chance.

“I would be lying if I said that this document did not confirm what most people already knew about this case over the past 20 months - corrupt Portuguese officials supporting the local national, without any regard whatsoever for either the child or the child's distraught mother (a foreigner!)”.

Candice, now married to Philip Gannon, and a long-time resident on the island of Madeira added: “Needless to say, we will be looking for our own answers to these questions in the European courts in what is sure to become a very high profile ECHR case against Portugal.”

As Candice spoke to us, Ellie remains confined to a hotel in Funchal with her father because Faro Civil Court refused to allow her to travel to Ireland with her family.

This side of the drama (reported in the Resident in November) came after Candice’s twin-pregnancy developed complications late last year. The 29-year-old has had to remain in Ireland awaiting the birth of her sons, due to be induced this week.

Meantime, Silva still awaits his trial over the kidnapping of Ellie in the summer of 2012. He has since filed for full custody of his daughter, and that application is due to be heard on March 24 in Faro.

www.portugalresident.com/shock-court-decision-opens-new-can-of-worms-in-ellie-kidnap-case
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: Admin on May 09, 2014, 09:49:29 AM
Tug-of-love schoolgirl Ellie Silva homeward bound for emotional reunion with her mum

(http://i.imgur.com/gn4PG9w.jpg?1)
5 May 2014
By Gerard Couzens

The joyous reunion is taking place after a Portuguese court decided last week that Ellie's dad should hand her back to her mum Candice.

(http://i2.irishmirror.ie/incoming/article3498290.ece/alternates/s615/photo-3JPG.png)


Tug-of-love schoolgirl Ellie Silva is on her way back to Ireland for an emotional reunion with overjoyed mum Candice Gannon.

Ellie, nine, started her journey back to Dublin just after midday today after Portuguese police forced dad Filipe Silva to hand her over to Candice’s husband Philip.

Silva, 36, turned up at Funchal airport in Madeira just after 9am claiming he had lost Ellie’s travel documents.

But police made him obey a court order after officials said she could travel to Ireland on an emergency passport provided by a British consul.

Ellie’s British-born mum Candice, 29, who has dual nationality because of her Irish dad, was expected to be reunited with her daughter late this evening.

She has arranged to take her new-born twins Henry and Charles and Ellie’s sister Olivia, three, to Dublin Airport to meet her and businessman Philip, 47, off their plane before their first meal together in nearly seven months at their home in nearby Ballsbridge.

Speaking shortly before they boarded their first flight to London ahead of a second flight later today to Dublin, Mr Gannon said: “Ellie is over the moon to be heading back.

“She can’t wait to see her mum and her brothers and sister.

“It’s a really happy ending. It was a moment of real relief when Filipe Silva handed her over.

(http://i4.irishmirror.ie/incoming/article3498291.ece/alternates/s615/photo-4JPG.jpg)

A family friend added: “About seven police turned up at Funchal Airport to make sure (Silva) complied with the court order.

“He arrived with a lawyer and a Portuguese TV crew and claimed he’d lost Ellie’s travel documents, having filed a complaint yesterday to the court claiming Philip and Ellie would be travelling on forged documents.

“His face dropped when Philip produced the emergency passport a British consul had very kindly flown to Madeira with.

“He’s breached the court order by not giving Ellie her travel documents back. He has her passport and identity card.”

A court in Faro rejected Silva’s bid for custody of Ellie last month and gave Candice permission to raise her in Ireland, ending years of legal wrangling over the youngster.

The mum-of-four was forced to return to Ireland last October because of a health problem to her recently-born twin boys.

Last week worried Candice persuaded an Algarve court to give police powers to compel Silva to obey the court order.

He still faces a kidnap trial over his alleged July 2012 abduction of his daughter, kept from Candice for nearly seven months at a hideaway in the northern Portuguese city of Porto.

Ellie, ten in December, has been living in a grubby hotel in Madeira with Silva and his mum Ana Maria since Candice’s forced return to Ireland last year.

Candice accused her ex of abusing the Portuguese legal system after being told police would force him to hand their daughter over to her.

www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/tug-of-love-schoolgirl-ellie-silva-flying-3498284?mobile=false
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on February 20, 2015, 05:32:25 PM
Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter

Portugal News
19-02-2015

Portuguese businessman Filipe Silva is next month to stand trial over the suspected kidnapping of his daughter Giselle Silva, commonly referred to in the press as Ellie, whose mother has dual British-Irish nationality.

(http://i.imgur.com/yYAK9y2.jpg?1)

Ellie Silva with stepfather Philip Gannon before boarding her plane home in May 2014.


The trial is due to commence on 17 March 2015 in Faro, it emerged this week.

A source from the Attorney-General’s office confirmed the case is currently “in a judicial phase and under the jurisdiction of a Judge.”

Silva, whose last known address was in Vilamoura, is to be brought before a judge after refusing to return his daughter to her mother following a two-week holiday in September 2012.  He is accused of unlawfully keeping the girl, then seven, from her mother, his ex-partner Candice Gannon, who had been granted parental custody and lived on the island of Madeira at the time.  Silva is also said to have flouted a court order to return the girl to her mother.

He was eventually detained by PJ detectives in early 2013 following a complex investigation which culminated in the issuing of an international arrest warrant.  Ellie, by then eight, was handed over to the authorities by her paternal grandmother in February 2013.  It is thought she had spent several months living with her father in Oporto, northern Portugal.

Reports this week by Correio da Manhã claim that should Filipe Silva be found guilty of kidnapping his daughter he could face up to ten years in prison.

www.theportugalnews.com/news/algarve-businessman-to-start-trial-for-fleeing-with-daughter/34054
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on February 20, 2015, 07:10:26 PM
As Ellie kidnap drama comes to court, family reveals tug-of-love Algarve dad “hasn’t paid a penny” in child support since 2011

(http://i.imgur.com/Cc5v4Ht.jpg?1)

Published 20 February 2015

(http://portugalresident.com/sites/default/files/styles/node-detail/public/field/image/728x410xEllie_0.JPG,qitok=m4YQBDpA.pagespeed.ic.bZx7ymxiAf.webp-Ellie-Siolva-Gannon)

Ellie Silva (Gannon) with her younger sister Olivia pictured in Ireland

The tortuous kidnap drama gripped the nation after Vilamoura businessman Filipe Silva hid his eight-year-old daughter Ellie from her distraught mother for seven agonising months. That was three years ago - but only now is the case against Silva coming to court.

Speaking to us from Ellie’s new home in Ireland, her mother Candice Gannon told the Resident that Silva will also face charges relating to his non-payment of child support.
 “He hasn’t paid a penny in child support since 2011,” she said. “The criminal prosecutor has decided to try him for that, along with the kidnapping.”

But whatever happens when the case is heard next month (scheduled to start on Monday, March 16), Ellie and her mother will not be turning up to find out.

“We would never allow Ellie to step foot back in Portugal again,” Candice vowed.

The fears that she could somehow lose her child again were exacerbated last year when Portuguese TVI station carried a startling-biased report on Ellie’s story, just as the little girl was due to be returned to her mother after an enforced separation ordered by the courts (see: http://portugalresident.com/%E2%80%9Csinister-plot%E2%80%9D-almost-block...)

Candice had had to be flown to Ireland for specialist treatment during her twin-pregnancy, and the Faro Child and Minors court did not allow Ellie to travel with her.

Instead she was made to live another seven months in a hotel with her father - the man who originally abducted her.

In that time, Silva contacted TVI and the damning report was aired the night Ellie flew out to Ireland.

“We were so lucky,” Candice told us at the time.

“If we hadn’t got out, it could all have ended so differently.”

But as it was, Ellie returned to the bosom of her amplified family (meeting the two little brothers she had never seen) and generally healing the emotional scars of the past.

Silva meantime has “made no attempt whatsoever to contact Ellie since last summer”, her mother told us.

“He has never once visited her in Ireland, and even if he did, Ellie would refuse to go with him as she is terrified he will kidnap her again”.

Thus, all the ‘evidence’ to be given by Ellie and her mother will have to be organised through video-link.

This may mean that the trial is delayed, says Candice as her lawyer has told her that video links “can take quite a bit of time to arrange”.

With any luck, the evidence Ellie gave state psychologists after her kidnap ordeal “will suffice for the criminal trial” said her mother - and leave Ellie, now aged 10, to the simple pleasures of childhood.

“She is enjoying sleepovers with school friends and loves her new school,” said Candice. “She is a big help with the twins and inseparable from Olivia (her youngest sister) who adores her. Life could not be better for us! A chill runs up my spine when I think that they almost got away with it. To think that Ellie was left in a hotel room with her kidnapper for seven months while they prepared his trial for full custody... Lies, deceit, corruption. It’s good to be back in civilisation!”

www.portugalresident.com/as-ellie-kidnap-drama-comes-to-court-family-reveals-tug-of-love-algarve-dad-“hasn’t-paid-a-penny”-in
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: Anna on February 20, 2015, 08:17:13 PM
That poor little lass, must be very confused with it all. Living in a not very nice, place to raise a child .
I hope the family are now very happy and that Elllie's father is regretting his action.
We must wait and see what the punishment will be, but I suspect it will be very light.
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on February 20, 2015, 08:37:18 PM
That poor little lass, must be very confused with it all. Living in a not very nice, place to raise a child .
I hope the family are now very happy and that Elllie's father is regretting his action.
We must wait and see what the punishment will be, but I suspect it will be very light.

Check out the additional post at #3 which reveals the extraordinary behind-the-scenes manoeuvres by an Albufeira magistrate in the high-profile abduction of nine-year-old British Ellie (Giselle Silva) by her Portuguese father, Filipe Silva.  No less than 25 secretly recorded telephone conversations with the child's paternal grandmother?

That particular attorney got off very lightly imo.
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: Anna on February 20, 2015, 08:54:04 PM
Check out the additional post at #3 which reveals the extraordinary behind-the-scenes manoeuvres by an Albufeira magistrate in the high-profile abduction of nine-year-old British Ellie (Giselle Silva) by her Portuguese father, Filipe Silva.  No less than 25 secretly recorded telephone conversations with the child's paternal grandmother?

That particular attorney got off very lightly imo.

I don't think he will give up easily by the sounds of it, so I hope he gets long enough for the girl to be grown up, before he endeavours to kidnap her again, but as I said, I doubt it will be a harsh sentence. They sure look after their own.
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: Anna on February 20, 2015, 09:03:54 PM
Check out the additional post at #3 which reveals the extraordinary behind-the-scenes manoeuvres by an Albufeira magistrate in the high-profile abduction of nine-year-old British Ellie (Giselle Silva) by her Portuguese father, Filipe Silva.  No less than 25 secretly recorded telephone conversations with the child's paternal grandmother?

That particular attorney got off very lightly imo.

Just found it and reading. Well I can't say that I am surprised by the way that british/irish parent was treated.....
Excerpt:-
The conversations show that the magistrate was firmly on the side of Ellie’s father.

In one, she tells Silva’s mother: “Everyone knows it isn’t kidnapping…”; in another she advises the woman “not to worry” and tells her it is very important for her son to say “that he doesn’t want to make a statement” when questioned by police.

The fact that the inquiry went on to find that there was no evidence of complicity between the female magistrate and Filipe Silva has “appalled” even those outside the child’s Irish family.

Ellie’s mother Candice Gannon said at the weekend that even Portuguese people who have read the document are astounded - both by the involvement of a criminal prosecutor as by the decision of the high court of Évora “not to see anything wrong with the involvement”.


http://portugalresident.com/shock-court-decision-opens-new-can-of-worms-in-ellie-kidnap-case
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: Anna on February 20, 2015, 11:56:05 PM
While we await the trial……………………Some heart warming photos of the family back home in the article below.

Girl kidnapped for two years meets baby twin brothers for the first time back home in Dublin
May 8, 2014


(http://www5.evoke.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ellie2.jpg?e40f50)

Candice Gannon (29) and her daughter, Ellie Gannon (9), hold twins, Charles and Henry (2 months old) at home in Killiney
Yesterday, Ellie spent her first morning at home in almost two years since she was abducted by her Portuguese father – and her first thought was to help her mother Candice Gannon cook breakfast.

The caring sister awoke in her Ballsbridge home with the promise of a day out at a local park to feed the ducks to look forward to.
Ellie, who had been living with her father, Filipe Silva, 35, and her Portuguese grandmother in a two-star hotel room since October, had only seen her mother four times during Skype chats permitted by her father.
And she had never met her two new two-month-old baby brothers, Charles and Henry, until she arrived into Dublin on Monday night.


(http://www5.evoke.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ellie1.jpg?e40f50)
Ellie Gannon (9) with her sister Olivia (6) at home in Killiney,
The moment she touched down on Irish soil – after the family secured her custody in a legal battle that has run for six years – was captured in yesterday’s Irish Daily Mail.
‘She woke up and helped me with breakfast,’ Ellie’s mother, Candice, 29, said. ‘She made beans and eggs with me and then we realised in the chaos, we had forgotten the bread,’ Ms Gannon laughed. ‘It was like waking up to all our Christmases at once to have Ellie home with us finally.’
And Ms Gannon said of her family’s joy over the last couple of days, ‘We have walked out of the darkness.’
Running around the house and playing with little sister Olivia, who is three, it was hard to believe that Ellie had been away from the warmth of her family for two years.


(http://www5.evoke.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ellie3.jpg?e40f50)
Ellie Silva and Philip Gannon at T2 in Dublin Airport
‘It’s a wonderful feeling to have Ellie home. I feel really happy,’ Ms Gannon said. ‘It is like Ellie was never away. She is so happy to be home with us. Ellie is smiling and laughing because she is now part of a normal family unit with stability. That is what every child needs. Ellie needed her mother, as I needed her.’
With her own bedroom and the adoration of her siblings – in particular, little Olivia – Ellie has already stepped into the familiar shoes of big sister. She confidently cradled her twin brothers and guided her little sister in games yesterday.
But despite the family living in a suddenly idyllic situation, the past is never far away. Olivia gets upset when she cannot find her sister even if Ellie steps out of the room for a matter of minutes.
Ms Gannon explained: ‘Olivia missed Ellie so much and she is scared she is going to go missing again, but we just have to let everything settle back so she knows her sister is staying here with us.’ But still, the family feel there is a threat of Ellie being taken again.
The Portuguese authorities have given custody to Ms Gannon but Mr Silva has been given part access, meaning he has been allowed permission to take Ellie during certain holidays throughout the year.
The first of these arrangements is due to take place in just eight weeks and this is not something the family want to think too much about as they revel in having their daughter home with them.
Ellie vanished during a holiday with her father on the Algarve in July 2012.
In February 2013, Portuguese police found the child in a Porto apartment. She had been told to wear a disguise and call herself Pipinha.
Looking towards her husband, Dublin businessman Philip Gannon, 47, Ms Gannon smiles, saying: ‘He has been my rock. Philip has been my hero in all this – he stood by me and never once gave up on Ellie.’
As she adjusted to being Ellie’s ever-attentive mother again yesterday, a cautious Ms Gannon said: ‘If I behave differently she will know there is something wrong. I will be saying, “clean your room, Ellie”. There is no point in being different. We are a normal family. I want to keep it as normal as possible.’
Next up for the Gannons is helping Ellie settle back into life in Ireland. ‘We are looking at very good schools in Dublin,’ Ms Gannon said. ‘We are lucky enough to be able to afford it. We want the best for Ellie.’
Laura Lynnot
http://www.evoke.ie/news/ellie-silva-met-her-twin-baby-brothers-for-the-first-time/

Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on February 21, 2015, 12:11:27 PM
Comment copied from elsewhere...


The small town corrupt and inept 'legal system' in the Algarve seems to take great pride in their culture of ineptitude, inefficiency, nepotism, corruption and racism. It will take several generations of EU membership to change this mindset.

The corrupt criminal prosecutor that was advising Silva to evade arrest has not been charged. His lawyer Nuno Remedios has not been charged either or disciplined by the law society, even though Ellie was hidden in the apartment building in Porto where he has a flat! Ana Maria Silva (paternal Grandmother) was let off scot free even though she stayed with Ellie throughout the kidnapping and lied to police saying she did not know where she was.

Mr. Alfonso Marques who kept Ellie in his two bed flat in Porto has not been charged of any crime. In the first seven months since Ellie was found, Candice Gannon endured over a dozen visits from armed police to her home and to Ellie's school while the Faro civil court prepared a trial to consider the merits of awarding her father custody of Ellie, while he was awaiting trial for kidnapping her.

This is Portuguese justice !!

www.algarvedailynews.com/news/2138-custody-triumph-over-kidnap-victim-ellie-silva
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: Anna on February 21, 2015, 12:25:07 PM
Comment copied from elsewhere...


The small town corrupt and inept 'legal system' in the Algarve seems to take great pride in their culture of ineptitude, inefficiency, nepotism, corruption and racism. It will take several generations of EU membership to change this mindset.

The corrupt criminal prosecutor that was advising Silva to evade arrest has not been charged. His lawyer Nuno Remedios has not been charged either or disciplined by the law society, even though Ellie was hidden in the apartment building in Porto where he has a flat! Ana Maria Silva (paternal Grandmother) was let off scot free even though she stayed with Ellie throughout the kidnapping and lied to police saying she did not know where she was.

Mr. Alfonso Marques who kept Ellie in his two bed flat in Porto has not been charged of any crime. In the first seven months since Ellie was found, Candice Gannon endured over a dozen visits from armed police to her home and to Ellie's school while the Faro civil court prepared a trial to consider the merits of awarding her father custody of Ellie, while he was awaiting trial for kidnapping her.

This is Portuguese justice !!

www.algarvedailynews.com/news/2138-custody-triumph-over-kidnap-victim-ellie-silva

So how much chance have other Brits got of getting fair justice, in Portugal....Such as the McCanns?
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on February 21, 2015, 02:06:09 PM
So how much chance have other Brits got of getting fair justice, in Portugal....Such as the McCanns?

That's the £1 million question Anna.
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: Anna on February 21, 2015, 02:15:03 PM
That's the £1 million question Anna.

If this case is an example of the corruption in that region, the McCanns haven't got a snowball's chance in hell, of getting fair justice. IMO
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on February 21, 2015, 02:31:25 PM
If this case is an example of the corruption in that region, the McCanns haven't got a snowball's chance in hell, of getting fair justice. IMO

But didn't Candice Gannon get justice in the end despite the corruption?
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: Anna on February 21, 2015, 02:38:50 PM
But didn't Candice Gannon get justice in the end despite the corruption?

Well, I hope so, John, but it took two years and the mother and stepfather, were wealthy enough to fight for justice. However the father has said that he won't give up, trying to get his daughter back. That must be a terrible worry for the family. It will be a much worse worry, if he gets a light sentence.
What punishment did the Prosecution attorney get? Fair justice?
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on February 21, 2015, 04:09:58 PM
Curiously, the Court previously ordered that he was to get parental visits with his daughter during holiday periods and regardless of his abduction he is her father so contact cannot morally be denied to him.

I agree, a difficult situation for which there is unlikely to be any longterm solution until the girl is 16 and can decide for herself where she wants to be.

I know Madeira and Funchal extremely well and had my own holiday romance there in 1974.  Another Anna! 
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: Anna on February 21, 2015, 04:16:42 PM
Curiously, the Court previously ordered that he was to get parental visits with his daughter during holiday periods and regardless of his abduction he is her father so contact cannot morally be denied to him.

I agree, a difficult situation for which there is unlikely to be any longterm solution until the girl is 16 and can decide for herself where she wants to be.

That is true, but was it not on one of those allowed visits that he disappeared with child and hid her?
So he blew it!
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on February 21, 2015, 04:33:08 PM
That is true, but was it not on one of those allowed visits that he disappeared with child and hid her?
So he blew it!

That appears to be the case.

Felipe apparently flew to Dublin and took her on holiday on 15 July 2012 and was supposed to return her by 31st July.  So technically the abduction was from that date.
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: insider on February 22, 2015, 02:41:21 PM
I cannot see Felipe getting any more than a slap on the wrists as after all it is his own daughter we are talking about here.  This is a domestic case, a tug of love and never an easy thing to resolve.  No doubt Ellie loves her real father as much as she loves her Irish mum and that will not change no matter how many lawyers or do gooders get involved.  My question would be why Felipe felt the need to do what he did in the first place?  Did he for instance feel that he wasn't seeing enough of his daughter with him working on the Algarve and his daughter living with her mother on the holiday island of Madeira?
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: Anna on February 22, 2015, 03:05:30 PM
I cannot see Felipe getting any more than a slap on the wrists as after all it is his own daughter we are talking about here.  This is a domestic case, a tug of love and never an easy thing to resolve.  No doubt Ellie loves her real father as much as she loves her Irish mum and that will not change no matter how many lawyers or do gooders get involved.  My question would be why Felipe felt the need to do what he did in the first place?  Did he for instance feel that he wasn't seeing enough of his daughter with him working on the Algarve and his daughter living with her mother on the holiday island of Madeira?

There is also the question......Why did the mother get custody of the child, who I believe was born in Portugal?

Whatever reason he had for kidnapping Ellie and keeping her away from the rest of her family for 2 years, we do not know, but it was against the law and therefore he must suffer the consequences.

A child parted from it’s mother, having to live in squalid conditions where she was hidden and having to give a false name to anyone who asked, for 2 years.... That is going to have a long psychological effect on that child.
I hope an agreement of common sense can be arranged by the parents, because he obviously loves her?

However if I was the mother, I would have a great fear of leaving her with her father again, as I am sure any mother would.
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: insider on February 22, 2015, 03:43:41 PM
I would think any further visitations will have to be in Dublin and under strict supervision.  Does anyone happen to know if the second child is also his?
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: Anna on February 22, 2015, 03:56:57 PM
I would think any further visitations will have to be in Dublin and under strict supervision.  Does anyone happen to know if the second child is also his?

I believe that would be the only answer, insider.
I don't think the other child is his, but I am not sure. She is fairer than Ellie, I believe, but still a possibility.
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: insider on February 22, 2015, 05:21:00 PM
Young people should be warned of the dangers of getting involved while working abroad as it never lasts and it is the poor children who have to cope with the fallout.
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: Anna on February 22, 2015, 05:35:37 PM
I didn't know that Candice was working abroad. Ellie has her father's name "Silva" so I assume they were married when Ellie was born.

        Wherever you go in the world, you will see romance between people from different countries, but I don't think it is inevitable to end in disaster.
How many fatherless children are there, in the UK, from British parents, for instance?
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: insider on February 22, 2015, 06:15:51 PM
I didn't know that Candice was working abroad. Ellie has her father's name "Silva" so I assume they were married when Ellie was born.

        Wherever you go in the world, you will see romance between people from different countries, but I don't think it is inevitable to end in disaster.
How many fatherless children are there, in the UK, from British parents, for instance?

I am willing to bet there is more to this story than has been revealed publicly. 
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: Anna on February 22, 2015, 08:23:06 PM
I am willing to bet there is more to this story than has been revealed publicly.  The mother wasn't long in changing Ellie's name to Gannon despite the natural father claim to paternity.

I agree it will be a story to be heard when it all comes out.

2013 the custody battle had been going on for 5 years, so the 6 year old in 2015, can not be his.
His child, Ellie was born 2005? so they must have parted 2007/8. Not together long then and the girl was just a toddler.
I couldn't understand why he complained, that her mother wouldn't let her learn Portuguese....Also don't all Portuguese speak English?

Snippits:-
Independent Ireland
18 February 2013
Ms Gannon, meanwhile, remains on the Portuguese island of Madeira as she doesn't have permission to return to Ireland with Ellie. She has lived there for the past five years as the custody battle raged in the courts.

Her husband, Irishman Philip Gannon, said it was always the family's intention to settle in Ireland but that they were "trapped" in Portugal due to Mr Silva's parental rights.


Meanwhile, Ms Gannon rejected as "rubbish" allegations by Mr Silva in a Portuguese TV interview that she had changed his daughter's second name to Gannon, disrupted her education and stopped her from learning Portuguese.

In the interview he said that taking his daughter were the actions of a "desperate father, looking for the truth and the love of my daughter".

He added: "I will obviously continue to fight for my daughter.

www.independent.ie/irish-news/mum-tells-of-nightmare-wait-to-bring-ellie-home-after-alleged-kidnapping-29077032.html

Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on March 02, 2015, 11:37:35 AM
Portuguese father of tug-of-love Irish schoolgirl to be charged with kidnap

(http://i.imgur.com/3nDAfyC.png?2)

Published 26 February 2015


The Portuguese father of Irish schoolgirl Ellie Silva is due to be tried next month for her kidnap.  Filipe Silva, 38, has been ordered to appear at a court in the Algarve capital Faro on March 17.  He faces up to ten years in jail if convicted.

(http://www5.evoke.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/evoke-portugal.jpg?b0a5b7)

Ellie’s mother Candice Gannon says her daughter loves being in Ireland with her twin siblings.

Ellie’s mother Candice Gannon, 30, and stepfather Philip Gannon, 47, have applied to give evidence from Dublin by video-conference.

Confirmation of the court date comes more than two years after Ellie, ten, was reunited with her mother at an Algarve children’s home after nearly seven months apart.

Mr Silva, 38, disappeared with his daughter in July 2012 during a two-week holiday and flouted a court order to return her.

The schoolgirl started a new life in Ireland last May with her mother and stepfather at their home in Ballsbridge, Dublin, after a family court judge in Portugal allowed her to leave the country.

Mrs Gannon said last night: ‘Life is very good for us in Ireland. Ellie could not be happier. She loves her new school, is inseparable from [her sister] Olivia and she is a huge help with the twins [her brothers] whom she adores.

‘It’s so nice we can all finally enjoy a normal life in Ireland. Things could definitely have turned out a lot worse for us.

‘Thank God we got Ellie out of Portugal when we did.’

She added: ‘It took the Faro courts five months to issue an arrest warrant, a full year to formally accuse him of a crime and another 20 months to proceed to trial.

‘It’s a miracle we got Ellie out of Portugal when we did.

‘Given everything that happened during and after the time Ellie was kidnapped, I’ve learned not to expect too much justice from the Faro courts.’

Mr Silva, who had a holiday fling with Mrs Gannon in 2004, has consistently denied any wrongdoing and is expected to plead innocent at the start of next month’s trial.

Ellie, who was born in Portugal, is due to give evidence, as is her mother and stepfather.

A police report submitted to the trial court – and expected to be outlined during the hearing – reveals the lengths that Mr Silva went to keep Ellie’s mother from seeing her.

He is accused in the report of meticulously planning to stay one step ahead of the law.

It is alleged he abandoned the Algarve with his daughter, ended contact with his closest family and friends, and even refrained from using his normal mobile or bank cards and accounts.

Police also highlighted how they discovered his daughter only received part-time schooling at an educational centre on the outskirts of Porto, northern Portugal.

Officers concluded that he had decided against having her schooled at home after discovering he would have to seek permission from the local education authority and give details of the address where Ellie was living.

The report had recommended that Mr Silva’s mother Ana Maria should be accused of kidnap but state prosecutors decided against charges.

(http://www5.evoke.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/evoke-philip-gannon.jpg?b0a5b7)

Irish schoolgirl kidnapped:Ellie, pictured here with her stepfather Philip Gannon who flew to Portugal to collect her.

Despite being charged with kidnap, Mr Silva was allowed to apply for custody of his daughter.

Mr Silva was told last April that his application had failed and his daughter would be returning to Ireland.

Ellie had to remain in Portugal until the decision was announced.

Ellie was separated from her mother, stepfather and sister Olivia, now four, after they returned to Ireland when Mrs Gannon became pregnant with twins and was told they had a potentially life threatening condition.

Eventually the child flew home to a family reunion last May after Mr Gannon picked her up at Funchal Airport on the island of Madeira.

www.evoke.ie/news/irish-schoolgirl-kidnapped-by-father/
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: Anna on March 06, 2015, 06:28:49 PM
Portuguese father of tug-of-love Irish schoolgirl to be charged with kidnap

(http://i.imgur.com/3nDAfyC.png?2)

Published 26 February 2015


The Portuguese father of Irish schoolgirl Ellie Silva is due to be tried next month for her kidnap.  Filipe Silva, 38, has been ordered to appear at a court in the Algarve capital Faro on March 17.  He faces up to ten years in jail if convicted.

(http://www5.evoke.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/evoke-portugal.jpg?b0a5b7)

Ellie’s mother Candice Gannon says her daughter loves being in Ireland with her twin siblings.

Ellie’s mother Candice Gannon, 30, and stepfather Philip Gannon, 47, have applied to give evidence from Dublin by video-conference.

Confirmation of the court date comes more than two years after Ellie, ten, was reunited with her mother at an Algarve children’s home after nearly seven months apart.

Mr Silva, 38, disappeared with his daughter in July 2012 during a two-week holiday and flouted a court order to return her.

The schoolgirl started a new life in Ireland last May with her mother and stepfather at their home in Ballsbridge, Dublin, after a family court judge in Portugal allowed her to leave the country.

Mrs Gannon said last night: ‘Life is very good for us in Ireland. Ellie could not be happier. She loves her new school, is inseparable from [her sister] Olivia and she is a huge help with the twins [her brothers] whom she adores.

‘It’s so nice we can all finally enjoy a normal life in Ireland. Things could definitely have turned out a lot worse for us.

‘Thank God we got Ellie out of Portugal when we did.’

She added: ‘It took the Faro courts five months to issue an arrest warrant, a full year to formally accuse him of a crime and another 20 months to proceed to trial.

‘It’s a miracle we got Ellie out of Portugal when we did.

‘Given everything that happened during and after the time Ellie was kidnapped, I’ve learned not to expect too much justice from the Faro courts.’

Mr Silva, who had a holiday fling with Mrs Gannon in 2004, has consistently denied any wrongdoing and is expected to plead innocent at the start of next month’s trial.

Ellie, who was born in Portugal, is due to give evidence, as is her mother and stepfather.

A police report submitted to the trial court – and expected to be outlined during the hearing – reveals the lengths that Mr Silva went to keep Ellie’s mother from seeing her.

He is accused in the report of meticulously planning to stay one step ahead of the law.

It is alleged he abandoned the Algarve with his daughter, ended contact with his closest family and friends, and even refrained from using his normal mobile or bank cards and accounts.

Police also highlighted how they discovered his daughter only received part-time schooling at an educational centre on the outskirts of Porto, northern Portugal.

Officers concluded that he had decided against having her schooled at home after discovering he would have to seek permission from the local education authority and give details of the address where Ellie was living.

The report had recommended that Mr Silva’s mother Ana Maria should be accused of kidnap but state prosecutors decided against charges.

(http://www5.evoke.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/evoke-philip-gannon.jpg?b0a5b7)

Irish schoolgirl kidnapped:Ellie, pictured here with her stepfather Philip Gannon who flew to Portugal to collect her.

Despite being charged with kidnap, Mr Silva was allowed to apply for custody of his daughter.

Mr Silva was told last April that his application had failed and his daughter would be returning to Ireland.

Ellie had to remain in Portugal until the decision was announced.

Ellie was separated from her mother, stepfather and sister Olivia, now four, after they returned to Ireland when Mrs Gannon became pregnant with twins and was told they had a potentially life threatening condition.

Eventually the child flew home to a family reunion last May after Mr Gannon picked her up at Funchal Airport on the island of Madeira.

www.evoke.ie/news/irish-schoolgirl-kidnapped-by-father/

Another (hopefully) happy ending for a little girl.
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on March 20, 2015, 10:20:15 AM
Ellie kidnap trial delayed until May 21

(http://i.imgur.com/Cc5v4Ht.jpg?1)

Published 17 March 2015

(http://portugalresident.com/sites/default/files/styles/node-detail/public/field/image/728x410xEllie_0.JPG,qitok=m4YQBDpA.pagespeed.ic.bZx7ymxiAf.webp-Ellie-Siolva-Gannon)

Ellie Silva (Gannon) with her younger sister Olivia pictured recently in Ireland

It has taken years to come to trial and now even that is being delayed. The trial of Filipe Silva, the father who kidnapped his own daughter, Gisele “Ellie” Silva, in 2012 was due to take place this week but has been delayed for “processual reasons”. These are thought to include difficulties involved in setting up video links. Ellie now lives in Ireland with her mother, stepfather and younger siblings.

As her mother Candice has told us on a number of occasions, neither she nor her daughter have any desire to return to Portugal for the hearing, and Ellie’s father has in fact had no contact with his daughter for months.

“He has never even visited her in Ireland,” she told us.

Candice spent seven agonising months not knowing where her daughter was while Silva held the little girl in a flat in a closed condominium in Porto.

PJ police monitored Silva’s movements throughout the months he had Ellie, finally detaining him in February 2013.

Silva’s trial is now scheduled to go forwards on May 21.

www.portugalresident.com/ellie-kidnap-trial-delayed-until-may-21
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on May 31, 2015, 01:17:40 PM
Trial now postponed until October 2015

Heartache mum fears Ellie’s kidnap dad “may never face justice”

(http://portugalresident.com/sites/default/files/styles/node-detail/public/field/image/Ellie_1.JPG?itok=48Ku7_xn)

Nearly three years after Filipe Silva disappeared on holiday with his daughter Ellie - keeping her from mother Candice for seven agonising months - his criminal prosecution for kidnapping has been yet again delayed.

The case which should have started on Wednesday is now scheduled to be heard in October, and even then, there is no guarantee of a firm date.

Talking to the Irish Examiner this week, Candice - who now lives in Ireland with her daughter and growing family - said she doesn’t think Silva “will ever pay for what he did”.

She claims the Portuguese justice system has “bent over backwards” for the father of her eldest daughter, while she has been treated like “a nasty foreigner”.

As national and UK media have repeatedly claimed, Candice has long felt victimised by the Portuguese justice system. Indeed a leaked court report shown to the Resident last year revealed shocking behind-the-scenes manoeuvres by a female Albufeira magistrate caught in phone taps with Silva’s mother who kept in close touch with her son throughout the months he was “on the run” with Ellie.

The conversations showed “without any shadow of doubt, that the magistrate was firmly on the side of Ellie’s father”, explained Candice, but incredibly Évora judges did not see it that way, and refused to acknowledge any evidence of complicity.

This latest delay in bringing the case to justice has been blamed on a court “foul-up”. Candice, her businessman husband Philip Gannon, and Ellie were all due to give evidence by video link from Dublin but the Portuguese court system “did not submit the correct paperwork”, claims the Examiner.

“They left out names, the case number, and half the information that was needed,” Philip, 48, told the paper.

“Our suspicions are that this was done deliberately to add further delays to the trial.

“But given the total incompetence that we have seen from the Faro courts over the past few years, it is possible that it was just a case of stupidity.

“One notorious kidnapping case in Portugal over a 12-year-old boy took 12 years to go to trial.

The Portuguese court system has a backlog of 20,000 cases so we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

As the family wait, saying they want to see Ellie’s father convicted, the Examiner reports that Silva’s €165,000 home in Vilamoura has gone up for auction “to discharge his large debt for non-payment of child support since 2011”.

As we reported in February, since Ellie has been living in Ireland in the sole custody of her mother, Silva has “never once visited” her, and Candice claims her 10-year-old daughter is still “terrified” that he might try and kidnap her again.

http://portugalresident.com/heartache-mum-fears-ellie%E2%80%99s-kidnap-dad-%E2%80%9Cmay-never-face-justice%E2%80%9D#sthash.jGIoeEot.dpuf
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on November 04, 2015, 01:14:01 AM
An update on the Ellie Silva abduction case.

(http://i.imgur.com/saGGZJD.png?1)

Algarve - Ellie kidnap case, father took daughter "due to his despair"

30 October 2015

The trial of Filipe Silva started today. Silva is the Vilamoura based businessman who abducted his daughter Ellie (pictured) in 2012, sparking a nationwide search which tracked the girl down to an apartment in Oporto.

Witness claimed in court today that Filipe Silva did not plan the kidnapping of his daughter, stating that the girl told her father that she did not want to return to Ireland where she lived with her mother Candice.

The former partner of Filipe Silva said today in court that the girl's father acted out of desperation.

Filipe Silva, who failed to return the girl in July 2012 ('September 2012' was claimed in court) after spending holidays with her, then hid Ellie for seven months to the distress of her mother and current husband.

The first session of the trial finally started on Friday morning, after three postponements, with the former partner of the businessman, who at the time lived with the accused, said that in the days before the date set for Ellie’s return to Ireland, the eight-year-old had cried and asked her father not to take her back to her mother.

"He (Filipe Silva) grabbed her daughter and said 'do not cry anymore, your father will not take you to Ireland,'" according to witness Ana Isabel Almeida who added that her ex-partner had been "desperate" not knowing what to do, and acted "instinctively" and had not planned to flee with his daughter.

Silva, who today chose not to testify, took the girl to a friend's house in Oporto where she was found seven months later in February 2013.

Ellie finally was handed over to the authorities by Filpe Silva’s paternal grandmother and Filipe Silva was detained by the Judicial Police.

Before deciding to keep the girl from her mother, in August 2012 Filipe Silva filed an injunction to try to block Ellie’s departure to Ireland.

This was a result of a letter from Ellie’s mother, Candice Gannon, "in which she expressed her intention of moving from Madeira to Ireland with her daughter and her current partner."(In fact this letter was a formal request from Candice Gannon for Silva to agree to Ellie moving to Ireland.)

Ana Isabel Almeida also claimed that the girl's mother did not provide her with a stable life, and claimed that while residing in Madeira, Ellie changed school "five or six times."

The next witness for the defence, Luis Calçada Correia, a long standing friend of the accused Filipe Silva, said that Silva was concerned about the move to Ireland.

"I know Filipe well and he would never do anything against the will of his daughter," said Correia, who then alleged that Candice Gannon did not behave normally as a mother, claiming there had been some episodes of heavy drinking.

Luis Calçada Correia, the owner of a pharmacy in Vilamoura and neighbour of the accused, said that Ellie said several times that she did not want to lose contact with her father and definitely did not want to go to Ireland.

The trial continues and it is expected in due course that Ellie, her mother and Philip Gannon will testify by teleconference from Ireland with a different version of the events and facts surrounding the lead up to and period of Ellie's kidnap.



Press Comment:

Silva's defence seems to be off to a very shakey start as It is already proven in the Faro criminal court that Ellie's mother did not plan wrongfully to remove her daughter to Ireland, as his witnesses are claiming. She had written a formal request to Silva to which he was not obliged to agree.

Prior to Ellie's kidnapping, the Portuguese Family Law Court, the High Court the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court all had issued decisions that awarded the custody of Ellie to her mother. Filpe Silva ignored the request for Ellie to live in Ireland which he was under no obligation to agree to and hid her in Oporto for seven months.

A source close to this case commented that based on the facts it will become clear that Silva deliberately broke the law by taking and hiding his daughter from her mother and the authorities, and has shown no remorse for his actions nor the pain and suffering he has caused to Ellie and her mother.

The time, trouble and expense Silva has caused the Portuguese authorities may also be taken into account. The personal opinion of his witnesses may not be enough for Silva to avoid a conviction for the serious crime of kidnap of which he is accused.

Ed.

http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/7076-algarve-ellie-kidnap-case-father-kidnapped-his-daughter-out-of-despair

Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on November 04, 2015, 01:44:44 AM
Interesting that the Portuguese Press are for the most part avoiding this story with the Correio da Manhã (Morning Post), Portugal News and the Portugal Resident all failing to report the latest news.

Thanks to Paul Rees at the Algarve Daily News for the above update.

Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on December 07, 2015, 02:17:22 PM
Ellie kidnap mum reveals daughter “still undergoing daily therapy sessions”

(http://i.imgur.com/Cc5v4Ht.jpg?1)

4 December 2015
by Natasha Donn

(http://portugalresident.com/sites/default/files/styles/node-detail/public/field/image/150213_SU_ELLIE_WITH_MOTHER_02_by_H%C3%A9lio_Ramos_0.jpg?itok=A__exWuj)

Over three years since a Portuguese father snatched his British child and kept her in hiding for seven months, the kidnap trial is finally underway in Faro, with a now 10-year-old Giselle “Ellie” Kelly Silva having given her evidence to judges via video link.

Weeks after a similar case saw a Portuguese father jailed for three years, this new trial once again highlights the issue of psychological damage inflicted on children in tug-of-love issues.

Ellie’s mother Candice told Faro Court this week that her daughter continues to undergo daily therapy sessions.

It is the family’s way of trying to redress the trauma suffered by the enforced absence from Ellie’s normal everyday world.

The child told the court how she had been forbidden to see other children when her father Vilamoura businessman Filipe Silva took her during a two-week holiday and set up home in a friend’s apartment in Porto.

Very much like little Maria Alice from Tavira, who was held by her father in Belgium for more than two years, Ellie described how she had to wear a disguise whenever she went out; how her father called her by an assumed name, and how she had been unable to call her distraught mother because she was “worried” about her father’s reaction.

The court had heard Silva’s side of the story at an earlier hearing. A former girlfriend explained that Ellie had not wanted to return to her mother after the holiday, and that a “desperate” Silva had acted “instinctively” by taking her into hiding.

This week mother now of four Candice reiterated the heartache the ordeal had caused.

“It was a nightmare,” she said over the video link. “For seven months, I didn’t know if my daughter was alive or dead.”

But more than that, Candice and husband Philip Gannon found themselves up against a wall of obfuscation.

There was even collusion to the extent that a national television channel aired an unrepresentative report hours before Ellie was due to be returned to her mother’s care. (See: http://portugalresident.com/%E2%80%9Csinister-plot%E2%80%9D-almost-block...).

The family, now living in Ireland, has never stopped thanking its lucky stars that it is finally together.

Ellie came home to twin baby brothers she had never seen and a little sister who has now become her shadow.

“We’re safe,” agreed Candice, “whatever the judges decide, Ellie is learning to be a carefree little girl again.”

The next stage in this case that has seen months of postponements and delays is for Silva to give his own evidence, and then there will be time for a summing up - expected sometime in January.

The family has been careful to limit description of Ellie’s trauma, but Candice told the court that her daughter was “profoundly marked” and that she still has trouble sleeping and issues with anxiety.

It is almost exactly the description given to the same court by the mother of Maria Alice, who, asked if three years was a suitable sentence for her former partner, told reporters: “I don’t know. If I look at my daughter today, I don’t know if it was enough.”

Like Ellie, Maria Alice was described as “deeply affected” by her kidnapping, and still receiving psychological support.

www.portugalresident.com/ellie-kidnap-mum-reveals-daughter-“still-undergoing-daily-therapy-sessions”
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on December 09, 2015, 04:27:37 PM
Ellie kidnap trial, evidence heard by video-link from Dublin


(http://www.saobrasnews.com/uploads/1/0/9/3/10933791/9312715_orig.jpg)

Created: 03 December 2015
 
It was a nightmare. For seven months, I did not know if my daughter was alive or dead."

Candice Gannon was giving evidence from Ireland via a video-link to Faro court on Wednesday and told the panel of judges of the psychological effects her daughter’s kidnap had on her during the months Ellie was hidden by her father, Filipe Silva.

(http://algarvedailynews.com/images/news/elliedublin.jpg)

Candice Gannon with her daughter Ellie Silva

In September 2012, when Giselle “Ellie” Kelly Silva was seven-years-old, her father Filipe Silva failed to return her after a family holiday period, taking her to Oporto where she had to use a false name and wear a disguise when leaving the apartment where she was being held.

Ellie’s absence eventually was taken seriously by the authorities in Faro and a hunt for the kidnapped girl was mounted, leading seven months later to Oporto where Ellie was found to be living with her father in the apartment owned by a friend.

Ellie finally was handed over to the authorities by Filpe Silva’s paternal grandmother and Silva was detained by the Judicial Police.

In the first session of Silva's trial for kidnap in October this year, held after three postponements, Filipe Silva’s former partner, who claimed that at the time she was living with the accused, said that in the days before the date set for Ellie’s return to Ireland, the girl had cried and asked her father not to take her back to her mother, adding that Silva had been "desperate" not knowing what to do, and acted "instinctively" and had not planned to flee with his daughter.

In the second session of Filipe Silva’s trial, Ellie, her mother and step-father gave evidence via a video-link from Ireland, where the family now lives.

Candice Gannon explained to the group of judges that her daughter had been "deeply marked" during the period in which she was held against her and the family court’s wishes and that she continues with daily therapy.

Ellie told the court that she had been reluctant to go with her father to Oporto, "I wanted to go back to my mother in Ireland. I never tried to contact my mother because I was afraid of my father's reaction," adding that she was "disguised with a cap, a jacket and sunglasses." "I felt sad, as if I was stuck."

Ellie told the court that she never left the flat except to go to school, that she was forced to use the false name ‘Pipinha’, had missed her mother but was too afraid to mention her because Silva would get very angry, had sat in a study hall on her own with a private teacher each day, went out only once, had to wear a disguise and was allowed no contact with other children.

Silva, a Vilamoura based businessman, is due to give evidence at the final hearing in two weeks time - the parties then will wait for the judges’ verdict after a summing up sometime in January, 2016.

Filipe Silva failed to attend the court hearing this week, claiming he had to go to hospital having suffered an injury.

http://algarvedailynews.com/news/7382-ellie-kidnap-trial-evidence-heard-by-video-link-from-dublin


Comment

Mary Kelly 2015-12-04

Ellie was hidden for 7 months in an apartment in Porto belonging to Mr. Alfonso Marques (single). Filipe Silva's lawyer, Dr. Nuno Remedios, lived in the same apartment building and visited Ellie regularly while she was kidnapped. She was told to call him "Tio Nuno" and he was one of her very few visitors.

Why is this practicing member of the Portuguese Bar Association not on trial and why is the Albufeira Magistrate that was caught red handed assisting Silva to evade the police not on trial?

During the time that Ellie was kidnapped, Silva paid Nuno Remedios to file dozens of groundless civil and criminal complaints into the Faro civil and criminal courts as part of their strategy to cause maximum pain and suffering to Ellie's mother, while she was desperately doing everything she could to try to find her daughter. There is no monetary amount that can compensate for this for this level of psychological stress.

Will justice be done in this case as it was in he case of Alice Evangalista. Or, will Silva's friends in the police and the local judiciary predictably let him away with it and in doing so make an international laughing stock out of the Portuguese justice system.



OLeary 2015-12-05

What is so desperately sad for the European Union as a whole is that Silva will not have had to 'sound out' two dozen or more Portuguese lawyers to find a bent one. His regular one would do nicely ! Can anyone imagine for an instant so many Portuguese lawyers warning Silva :

"Stop there, Snr. Silva. I must warn you that what you are proposing to do is illegal and in offering me money, a registered lawyer, to help you carry it out - is also not just illegal but, as a protected profession - notifiable. I will be obliged to notify the authorities if you continue to discuss this with me. The door is where you last used it - please close it on leaving"
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on January 25, 2016, 12:22:34 PM
Daughter did not want to go away

(http://i.imgur.com/zjaxBkw.jpg?1)

(http://cdn.cmjornal.xl.pt/2016-01/img_905x603$2016_01_20_05_53_49_508705.jpg)

Filipe Silva is accused of kidnapping his own daughter.

By  Pedro F. Guerreiro
20 January 2016

Filipe Silva, accused of his own daughter's abduction in August 2012, said in court on Tuesday that he just ran off with Giselle - who was just seven years old at the time - when he realized that the girl's mother and former partner, the Irish Candice Gannon, would move permanently on the island of Madeira, where he lived for Ireland. "should I have moved to Madeira to get Giselle for a holiday, but I was informed that she was in Ireland without my consent [in July 2012] came to the conclusion that the family [Candice and the new companion, Philip Gannon] had no residence in Madeira, "said Filipe Silva at Faro court. According to the defendant, who was seeking his daughter now in Ireland, the decision not to deliver the youngster to her mother was taken with the "consent" of the girl: "my daughter always told me she did not want to live away from me and at that time, I was sure she was going to live in Ireland."

The Algarve businessman tried to avoid this scenario with an injunction before the Court of Family and Children. However, after not having delivered the minor, he claimed to have been the target of threats that led him to leave the Algarve "for security reasons". He went to live with the girl in a friend 's house in Leca da Palmeira, and was only arrested in February 2013 by PJ, when Giselle returned to her mother's custody. The defendant claims that Candice, who enrolled her daughter at school by another name, wanted to prevent him from seeing the child.

http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/nacional/portugal/detalhe/filha_nao_queria_ir_para_longe.html
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on March 09, 2016, 03:32:17 PM
MP calls for conviction for kidnapping daughter

(http://i.imgur.com/zjaxBkw.jpg?1)

(http://cdn.cmjornal.xl.pt/2016-02/img_905x603$2016_02_11_02_54_40_513398.jpg)

Filipe Silva fled with 7 year old daughter to the area of ​​Porto.

By  Pedro F. Guerreiro
12 February 2016

The Public Ministry (MP) yesterday asked the condemnation of businessman Filipe Silva for the minor crime of kidnapping, for in August 2012, having fled with his 7 year old daughter to the area of Porto, where he lived until February 2013.

The MP prosecutor held yesterday at Faro court that the facts "constitute the lesser echelons of crime, but also of abduction" and that Giselle "was deprived of her liberty for 7 months and deprived of contact with her mother [Irishwoman Candice Gannon]." Filipe Silva also gave evidence to the collective of judges and reaffirmed that, in July 2012, when he was seeking Giselle for a vacation, mother, Candice, and her husband, Philip Gannon," no longer had a home in Madeira ", where they lived in the past and wanted to establish permanent residence in Ireland.

Filipe Silva, who was eventually arrested by the Judicial Police in February 2013, also said that his daughter Giselle had been enrolled in an educational establishment and Madeira Education Regional Directorate with a different name (with Gannon as her family name and not Silva). This detail, according to Filipe Silva, confirmed his suspicion that Candice mother wanted to "ward of paternity" of her younger daughter.

However, the MP said that "there is no cause or legal justification" for the conduct of business owner and asked for therefore, his conviction by the minor crime of kidnapping. The reading of the sentence was scheduled for March 11.

http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/nacional/portugal/detalhe/mp_pede_condenacao_por_sequestro_de_filha.html
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on June 11, 2016, 01:33:31 AM
Faro court postpones ‘Ellie’ sentencing to hear new witnesses.

(http://i.imgur.com/IHi1qHi.jpg?1)

8 June 2016

A Faro court has again postponed the sentencing of a Portuguese father who is accused of kidnapping his dual-nationality daughter, to hear new witnesses. A new hearing has been scheduled for 24 June, to hear witnesses brought in by the defence.

(http://www.theportugalnews.com/uploads/news/page11_Ellie.jpg)

Algarve businessman Filipe Silva was due to be sentenced in Faro’s Court for Minors and Family last Friday, for unlawfully withholding his then seven-year-old daughter Giselle – widely referred to in the media as Ellie – from her British-Irish mother, Candice Gannon, for six months spanning September 2012 to February 2013. However the sentencing was again postponed to allow for new witnesses – two people, according to Lusa News Agency – to be heard later this month.

Sentencing was originally due to have taken place on 20 May but was postponed until June reportedly to allow the Faro court time to “analyse facts that could change the original position”, Lusa reported.  On 20 May the Faro court said it was “relevant to understand what happened after the separation” of Filipe Silva and Candice Gannon.

According to Lusa, the Judge in charge of the case sent the defence and the prosecution a 27-page file containing 46 facts that indicated changes to how the case had been perceived thus far, and giving them until last Friday to analyse those facts.  As a result the defence asked for new witnesses to be heard, which the court accepted, with the new hearing being set for 24 June 2016.

The case dates back to 2012, when Silva kept his daughter from her mother, who then lived on the Portuguese island of Madeira, and disobeyed a court order to hand her back.  In the several months of her absence the child is believed to have lived with her father in Porto, and he allegedly limited contact between Ellie and her mother.  Ellie was eventually returned to Candice in February 2013 by her paternal grandmother after Filipe Silva was detained by PJ police.
 
Candice Gannon currently lives in the Republic of Ireland with husband Philip and their three young children.
Silva’s defence argues that the businessman acted out of desperation, alleging he feared his daughter was going to be taken to Ireland to live and the child had said she did not want to go.

Speaking to The Portugal News, Candice Gannon was critical of the Portuguese legal system, claiming that this trial “is becoming one of the longest trials in Faro's court history.”  If found guilty of kidnapping, Silva faces up to ten years in jail.

http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/faro-court-postpones-ellie-sentencing-to-hear-new-witnesses/38483
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on July 24, 2016, 12:51:17 PM
Ellie’ dad dodges jail with suspended sentence

(http://i.imgur.com/IHi1qHi.jpg?1)

BY Carrie-Marie Bratley, In Algarve.
21 July 2016

An Algarve businessman accused of kidnapping his dual-nationality daughter has avoided jail after being handed a suspended prison sentence.

(http://www.theportugalnews.com/uploads/news/page22_Ellie.jpg)

Filipe Silva stood accused of kidnapping his Irish-Portuguese daughter in 2012, after refusing to hand her back to her mother or disclose the girl’s whereabouts for several months. He unlawfully withheld his then seven-year-old daughter Giselle – widely referred to in the media as Ellie – from her British-Irish mother, Candice Gannon, for six months, spanning September 2012 to February 2013, ignoring a court order instructing her immediate return in the process.

In the several months of her absence, the child is believed to have lived with her father in Porto, and he allegedly limited contact between Ellie and her mother. Ellie was eventually returned to Candice in February 2013 by her paternal grandmother after Filipe Silva was detained by PJ police.

Silva was last week sentenced to a two-and-a-half-year suspended prison sentence for his actions and also ordered to pay €17,500 in compensation. Judge Joaquim Cruz, who headed proceedings, said Silva had acted with intent but justified the suspended sentence because the father had not shown any behaviour that indicated he would take the girl again after her return. Conceding that he understood the father’s motives, he warned “this should not be done to a child” and in this case, “the parents were the children and the child was the adult.”

Silva’s defence argued the businessman acted out of desperation, alleging he feared his daughter was going to be taken to Ireland to live and claimed the child had said she did not want to go. Through the trial the defence has said Silva’s actions should be interpreted as breach of a court order, and not kidnapping.

Speaking after the sentencing, prosecuting lawyer Spencer Dohner said he considered the outcome fair, given the legal framework for kidnapping crimes. “For seven months the child could not live her life as normal, she couldn’t see her mother, go to school, be with family and friends, or experience any of the things that are normal for any child and she will suffer the consequences of this for the rest of her life”, he said.

Ellie currently resides in Ireland with her mother, stepfather and half-siblings; Silva has visitation rights.

http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/ellie-dad-dodges-jail-with-suspended-sentence/38928
Title: Re: Algarve businessman to stand trial after fleeing with daughter.
Post by: John on December 28, 2016, 01:22:47 AM
Ellie kidnap case: 2½ years 'suspended sentence' for Filipe Silva


(http://www.saobrasnews.com/uploads/1/0/9/3/10933791/9312715_orig.jpg)

14 July 2016

The case involving Vilamoura businessman Filipe Silva, who kidnapped his daughter Ellie in 2012 after a period of parental access, is over.

Silva today received a 2½ year suspended sentence and has been ordered to pay compensation of €7,000 to Ellie's mother, Candice Gannon, and €9,000 to his own daughter for the distress caused by his actions.

Silva's abduction of his daughter Ellie sparked a nationwide police search which led finally to an apartment in Oporto and Silva's arrest on charges of kidnap.

The leniency of today's judgement has left Ellie’s mother, Candice Gannon, disgusted with the Portuguese justice system when it comes to child kidnapping and appalled at the insulting level of compensation for the substantial pain, suffering and distress Filipe Silva has caused her and her family.

Silva faced up to ten years in jail, but has run rings around the court and legal system while endeavouring to present himself as the aggrieved party.

The level of collusion within the Portuguese legal system to help Silva has been shocking.

Not only was a court official feeding Silva information about the kidnap hunt after Ellie had been abducted in 2012, Silva’s lawyer was fully aware of Ellie’s whereabouts but did nothing to alert the authorities despite a desperate nationwide search being underway. 

Filipe Silva, a well-off Vilamoura businessman, failed to pay a cent in child support and in court a witness claimed Silva had abducted his own daughter ‘out of desperation’ as he did not want Ellie to move to Ireland.

Ellie’s mother, Candice Gannon, has custody of her daughter. Her family life is in Ireland so it seems sensible that her daughter lives there too and there was never any suggestion that Silva's parental access would be denied.

Silva ended up receiving legal aid with the taxpayer paying his legal fees.

Ellie’s mother said by video-link from Ireland during Silva’s trial that her daughter was "deeply marked by the period in which she was held by her natural father in Oporto, was undergoing daily therapy and has been suffering from anxiety with troubled sleep and low self-confidence.”

Candice Gannon today hit out, “This sentence comes as no surprise to me. I have learned to expect very little justice from Faro courts”

“Thankfully Ellie is safe and well and very happy living in a country that believes in enforcing the law.”

Another father in a high-profile Algarve kidnapping is Paulo Guiomar, who received a sentence of three years in prison having been remanded in custody due to the seriousness of the charges. Filipe Silva was at liberty before his trial and remains so.

Ellie’s mother today commented further, "I am disgusted by the leniency of this sentence.  The Algarve is well known for not taking child kidnapping too seriously”

“Despite the disgraceful decision to suspend this sentence, we are very pleased that this ordeal is finally over and we are looking forward to going back to enjoying our family life in Ireland where child protection is taken somewhat more seriously.”

“Needless to say we are raging with the leniency of this sentence, but we sort of knew all along that they would let him away with it.”

Filipe Silva failed to show up in court to hear his sentence. Instead, he sent in a sick note.

http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/9371-ellie-kidnap-case-2-years-suspended-sentence-for-filipe-silva