Irish woman claims Madeleine McCann suspect's eyes 'bored into' her skull as he raped her
Hazel Behan told the court she still bears the scars of the attack, which took place in Praia da Rocha, in the Algarve, in 2004, where she was working as a holiday representative. File picture: RTÉ
An Irish woman who alleges she was raped at knifepoint by the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has told a court she would never forget the eyes of her attacker, which “bored into my skull”.
Giving evidence in the trial of Christian Brückner, who stands accused of five sexual assaults in Portugal of women aged between 10 and 80 between 2000 and 2017, Hazel Behan, aged 40, who was raped in June 2004, told the court: “I believe that this man was my attacker.”
Sitting just metres away from Brückner, Ms Behan, an administrator and mother of three, told the court on the second and final day of testimony, delivered over 10 hours, that she still bears the scars of the attack, which took place in Praia da Rocha, in the Algarve, where she was working as a holiday representative.
Brückner, 47, was at one point asked by the judge to approach the bench so that she could examine his eyes, after Ms Behan said she would “never forget” the eyes of her attacker.
She added that she thought the effect of her attacker’s eyes was intensified by the fact that otherwise he was completely dressed in black.
“They were just so blue… everything so dark… they were like lights, they were so bright. I just know them,” she said.
Her attacker had been masked and was covered head to toe in a leotard-style body suit of about 60-denier thickness, and wore leather, or fake leather, gloves, she said, adding that only his eyes had been visible.
The court was shown pictures of scars on the backs of her legs that remain to this day, from where she was tied with rope to a breakfast bar during the prolonged attack.
He spoke to her in English, in what she said was a German accent.
Brückner is serving a seven-year sentence for the 2005 rape of an American tourist in the Algarve.
He is due for release from the end of next year.
Ms Behan said she came forward to offer the account of her ordeal to British police in 2020 in response to an appeal by the police working on the McCann case.
The appeal included an official police identity photo of Brückner.
The sight of the picture and the physical description of him had made her feel nauseous, and later caused her to vomit, she said.
She subsequently learned of Brückner’s conviction in 2019 of the rape of an elderly American tourist, and shared with Irish, British, and German police the striking similarities in the modus operandi of the attacker in the woman’s case and hers.
Over two days, Ms Behan told the court in graphic detail how she was repeatedly raped, whipped, and tied up in her apartment, the attacker filming the ordeal on a camera he had set up on top of the television in her room.
The attacker threatened her, saying: “If you scream, I’ll kill you.”
At one point she said she feared she would be beheaded after he wielded a knife at her.
Brückner denies the sexual assault charges and also denies involvement in the disappearance of McCann.
The trial continues.
- Guardian
