The delay was justified by the fact that Silva had dismissed his previous lawyer and outrun the period conceded to appoint a replacement, so a court-appointed lawyer was assigned to the case at the 11th hour and granted an extension of time at his request to become familiar with it.
In 2012 Filipe Silva went on the run with his daughter, disobeying a court order to return the child to her mother, Irish-born Candice Gannon, who lived on the island of Madeira at the time.
Silva disappeared with Giselle – widely known to the general public as Ellie – following a two week holiday they had spent together that summer, triggering what was dubbed by the media a ‘tug-of-love’.
Filipe Silva is due to appear in the first court hearing of the trial at 9.30am on 30 October.
Faro court has also set the date of 2 December to hear Ellie’s mother and stepfather, Philip Gannon, by video-conference, from Ireland, where they now live.
Ellie was eventually handed back to her mother by her paternal grandmother, then aged 8, in February 2013 after her father was detained by PJ police.
If found guilty, Silva could face up to ten years in prison.