WARNING – DISTURBING DETAILS: Hazel Behan said a masked and machete-wielding man beat and raped her for up to five hours in her home in Praia da Rocha, about 15 miles from the resort where Madeleine McCann disappeared
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A rape victim has asked police to review her case to find out if she was attacked by the German man suspected of abducting and murdering Madeline McCann.
Hazel Behan, from Ireland, was living in Portugal's Algarve when she was attacked for up to five hours by a masked and machete-wielding stranger in her flat in Praia da Rocha, about 15 miles from the resort where Madeleine disappeared in 2007.
She has told how she became physically sick when she learned last week that the McCann suspect, Christian Brueckner, was convicted of brutally raping and assaulting a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz in 2005.
Ms Behan said that attack bears similarities to her own experience in 2004, and she wants police, who failed to catch her assailant, to investigate whether there is a link.
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Hazel Behan fears she was attacked by Christian Brueckner in her flat in 2004
(Image: Twitter)
Ms Behan said she was working as a holiday rep in the Algarve and aged 20 when she was raped in her apartment by a man who spoke English with a German accent, and was about 6ft 1in.
She believes that if Portuguese police had thoroughly investigated her case they might have caught the assailant and prevented the attack on the American woman and three-year-old Madeleine's disappearance.
Waiving her right to anonymity, she told the Guardian that the intruder set up a video camera to film the attack and told her not to scream.
He dragged her and tied her to the countertop of a breakfast bar, brought out a bag of whips and chains, cut off her clothes and gagged her with a cloth.
Madeleine was just three when she vanished in May 2007
Christian Brueckner is suspected of murdering Madeleine McCann
He then beat and raped her in what seemed like a carefully planned attack.
She said: “I had gone to bed around 1am, and was awoken by someone calling my name. I turned on to my back and standing there was a masked man dressed in tights and what resembled a leotard, a machete around 12in long in his hand."
She added: "He consistently cleaned his hands, and repeatedly changed condoms. He wanted me to perform a certain act on him which I just couldn’t, I was gagging.
“He got angry and ordered me into the bathroom and he picked up the machete. I was convinced he was going to kill me, and I threatened to scream and said I would not go in there."
Ms Behan's hands were still bound behind her back when her assailant leaned her over a small bench and put a sheet over her head.
She feared she was about to be killed, but he then backed out of the door, put his shoes back on and ran off.
Through the holes in his mask she could see his blond eyebrows and blue eyes.
There was a distinctive mark on the top of his right thigh, which was either a pull in the tights, a tattoo or a birthmark, she added.
New Madeleine McCann prime suspect
German media have described Brueckner, now 43, as having birthmarks on his upper right thigh.
Former neighbours in Praia da Luz said he abruptly moved out of his ramshackle home in 2006, leaving behind a collection of wigs, fancy dress and exotic clothing.
Ms Behan has been left deeply traumatised and told how she "puked" when she read about the attack on the American woman because it took her back to the night she was raped.
The Irish woman said she was "humiliated" by police who took her back to her room and asked her to remove her clothes and stand in a "star jump-like" position while they photographed her.
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She was then taken to a hospital for a physical examination, but she doesn't know if any forensic evidence was collected.
Ms Behan believes police did not carry out a thorough investigation or search because there was no attempt to examine her wounds for evidence, and one of her fingernails was discovered by her mum in her room several days later.
She had been told to stay quiet about the attack so it wouldn't bring bad publicity to the resort.
She suspects she was being stalked and the suspect had been in her room in the weeks before the rape because money was missing and belongings had been moved.
Brueckner was convicted of raping and torturing a 72-year-old American woman
Ms Behan, who lives in Ireland with her husband and two children, had been losing hope that her attacker would be brought to justice until she learned of the past crimes of the new suspect in the McCann case.
When she gave a statement to Met Police she was told they were taking her case seriously and they would contact Portuguese police.
She said the Met told her that other people had contacted them independently about her attack.
The American pensioner who was attacked in a luxury villa in Praia da Luz, the same resort where Maddie would vanish about 18 months later, told Portuguese police that an intruder grabbed her and dragged her into a bedroom, where she was tied up, raped and tortured.
Brueckner filmed the 2005 attack and wasn't caught for 14 years until a friend came forward with information and DNA evidence linked him to the crime.
The friend told police he broke into Brueckner's home near Praia da Luz in 2006 when the suspect was in custody for allegedly stealing diesel fuel.
During the burglary, the friend found a video camera and footage showing separate attacks on an "older" woman and a "younger" woman.
But the friend stayed silent for years before going to police with the information and Brueckner's name.
Hair recovered from the woman's bed was a match with Brueckner's DNA, his trial was told.
Brueckner lived about half a mile from the flat where he raped the US woman.
He was jailed last December for seven years and is currently in prison in Kiel in northern Germany.
Sourse: www.mirror.co.uk
