In the final nail-biting days for a longed-for mother-daughter reunion, the Resident has heard that Faro court has given police the powers to enforce their custodial sentence, ensuring that little Ellie Kelly Silva should really be on a plane from Madeira home to her mother in Ireland on Monday.
It could be the end of six years of agony in which nine-year-old Ellie has been variously kidnapped, kept undercover for months and subjected to a level of psychological strain that could never been deemed healthy for a growing child.
“We are just praying this is an end to the whole horrendous nightmare,” stepfather Philip Gannon told us earlier this week.
Gannon will be flying in to Funchal on Monday with a temporary travel document that should see Ellie returned to the arms of her mother Candice.
Meantime, Candice’s lawyer has made a complaint to the Superior Council of Magistrates over the length of time it has taken for Ellie’s father to face justice over her daughter’s kidnapping back in the summer of 2012.
It has been 17 months since Filipe Silva was accused of the kidnapping, and yet still his case has not come to court.
In the meantime, Silva launched a custody bid, which finally reiterated last month that Ellie should indeed live with her mother Candice, alongside her new baby brothers and little sister Olivia.
Legal blocks however have meant that, until Monday at least, Ellie has remained in the custody of her father, in a hotel room in Funchal.
The Resident hopes to bring updates on this story as it happens on Monday.
