'You're stuck with me forever': Brit holiday rep was doused in ACID after ex-boyfriend 'set trap on Tinder'
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A holiday rep suffered horrific burns in an acid attack after she was allegedly lured to a date on ­Tinder by her ex-boyfriend.
Ellie Chessell then received a ­threatening message as she lay in agony in her hospital bed.
The 29-year-old had the acid thrown over her two months after she split from Claudio Gouveia who she had lived with on the Portuguese island of Madeira.
TUI rep Ellie was attacked by a stranger as she was on her way to meet a man she met on Tinder called “Diogo” in the Algarve. She suffered 50% burns to her body.
(Image: Getty)
She later told police: “I thought at first the liquid was urine because it felt warm but I quickly realised it was acid because the heat became burning and I realised I had been caught in a trap set by my ex-boyfriend.”
But as she recovered, she received a message that read: “I’m looking forward to our next encounter. Like you said you stuck with me forever.”
Ellie had walked out on her boyfriend of two years and fled to the Algarve after he ­allegedly smashed her head against a wall during a row about money and his jealousy.
(Image: SOLARPIX.COM)
According to prosecution papers, police in the UK and Portugal were warned she was in danger at least a month before the attack last May. But little appears to have been done.
Ellie received the threat: “I will find you… you are going to die.”
Gouveia, 34, is also accused of sending a message to her parents in Newport, Isle of Wight, telling them: “I’m going to burn her face.”
The threats were so serious ­Hampshire police sent officers in the Algarve an alert that said: “He needs to be located to safeguard the victim.”
(Image: Daily Mirror)
Ellie also got messages begging her to go back to him. In one he wrote: “Why can’t we start over in the Isle of Wight. A fresh start. Do you think that’s better than start everything with someone else?”
But when Ellie did not reply, the message took a sinister turn.
One, dated April 3, read: “I’m going to find you and take your head off. You are a slut and you are going to die.”
(Image: SOLARPIX.COM)
Prosecutors claim he sent messages for two hours, adding: “You are going to make me do something silly. I’m going to take you with me if you don’t reply.”
The court files claim Gouveia and alleged hitman Edmundo Helder Rodrigues Fonseca travelled from Madeira to the Algarve four days before the attack for a “recce”.
They also allege the Tinder profile set up in the name of “Diogo” vanished as Ellie was attacked.
Gouveia was arrested in Madeira on May 29 and has been in custody ever since.
Fonseca, 44, was tracked down to Uganda where he is in jail on heroin charges. It is believed prosecutors are awaiting for his extradition before putting the pair on trial.
Ellie is back in the UK having follow-up treatment for her burns and the post-traumatic stress she suffered.
In the court papers she says: “I had a career with TUI that I enjoyed and fully expected to continue in this role.
“This has now been put on hold pending my complete recovery.”