Woman raped in 2004 gives evidence in trial of McCann suspect

A woman raped at knifepoint by a masked man in Portugal 20 years ago has told a German court how the trauma had left her suffering from frequent panic attacks.

- Kate Connolly

Hazel Behan, 40, broke down as she recalled how a man dressed in black had entered her apartment in the resort of Praia da Rocha in the Algarve at 3am on 16 June 2004. She told how he had stood over her bed and woken her by calling her name before raping her over several hours.

Behan was giving evidence at the trial in Braunschweig, northern Germany, of Christian Brückner, 47, the main suspect in the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine McCann. He is accused of three rapes and two indecent assaults in Portugal between December 2000 and June 2017. The incidents involve five women and girls aged between 10 and 80.

In a graphic account over several hours the Irish national, who has waived her anonymity, had to pause several times. Behan had come forward to offer the account of her ordeal to British police in 2020 on learning of a Metropolitan police appeal for witnesses after German police named Brückner as the main suspect in the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine.