Two men, aged 34 and 44, have been charged the attempted murder of Eleanor Chessell, on May 6th, 2017, in Alvor, Portimão.
The 28-year-old English woman was attacked with acid which caused "burns and injuries to various parts of her body," said the police.
This was a "pre-arranged plan" hatched by Cláudio Gouveia, the 34-year-old former boyfriend of the victim, having “sought revenge after the relationship broke up.”
According to a statement from the Public Prosecutor, "the first defendant and the victim lived together for about two years in Madeira and in England, until the relationship ended, a situation that the defendant did not accept."
According to the Public Prosecutor, the two defendants persecuted Chessell "and, after discovering that she was in the Algarve, moved from Madeira to Alvor.
Eleanor Chessell suffered second- and third-degree burns on more than 50% of her body, mostly on her chest, legs and arms, and was transferred from the Algarve to Lisbon’s São José Hospital specialist burns unit.
She told police that she "did not recognise the man who attacked her," but they suspected that the man who threw the acid into the victim's face was hired by the ex-boyfriend.
The attacker created a fake Facebook profile and made a date to meet the travel rep. Chessell kept the appointment, and had two litres of acid thrown over her, leaving her screaming in pain at the side of the road between Intermarché and the Hospital Particular in Alvor, Portimão.
Eleanor worked for Tui as a travel rep and comes from Newport, Isle of Wight. She already had been transferred from an Albufeira hotel to the Hotel Alvor Baia due to harassment from Gouveia who was found in Madeira after the attack and was suspected of having orchestrated it. He was questioned by police and said to the press that he had nothing to do with events and wished Eleanor a speedy recovery, claiming the acid attack could have been organised “by another ex-boyfriend.”