Irin says Madeleine McCann suspects Christian Brückner’s eyes “bored into my skull”

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An Irish woman who claims she was raped at knifepoint by the main suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance said she feared for her life during the attack and that she could never forget the attacker whose eyes “bored into my skull”. .

Hazel Behan, 40, who was allegedly raped by Christian Brückner in 2004, described her traumatic experience in a German court on Thursday.

She described how her masked and black-clad attacker bound, raped and whipped her for hours, leaving her with lasting physical and psychological scars.

The 47-year-old Brückner is accused of having committed several sexual assaults in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

Ms Behan said she still bore the scars of the attack in Praia da Rocha in the Algarve, where she worked as a holiday sales representative.

The then three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann also disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment in the Algarve in 2007.

Ms Behan told the court she would never forget the attacker’s blue eyes. “I believe this man was my attacker,” she said.

She described him as “very aggressive and hateful.”

“I knew his eyes, I know his eyes,” she said. “I see blue eyes every day. My son has blue eyes. I know the difference when you spend time in that situation and you can’t see anything of that person other than their eyes, that’s the only thing you can remember,” she added.

“They are burned into my skull and I will never forget them. They were just so blue. Everything else he wore was so dark that it seemed as if his eyes were lights. I just know her. He was very aggressive and hateful. He really didn’t like me. He was in control, he was in charge.”

Ms Behan chose to waive her right to anonymity when she approached investigators with her statement in 2020 after a police call showed Bruckner’s photo, which she claimed was of great concern to her due to its striking resemblance to her attacker caused concern.

Brückner, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for raping an American woman in the Algarve in 2005, has denied all allegations relating to Ms Behan’s case and McCann’s disappearance. His release is scheduled for the end of next year.

The trial, which began in February and involves numerous witnesses and experts testifying, is expected to last until the fall.