• Investigation Madeleine McCann: Thirteen Years of Police Tribulation
  • Investigation The suspect in the Madeleine case, linked to the disappearance of another child 24 years ago in the Algarve
  • Profile Christian Brueckner, the German rapist who allegedly murdered Madeleine McCann

Her name is Hazel Behan, she is Irish and worked in Praia da Rocha, a 30-minute drive from the place where Madeleine McCann was kidnapped, when a stranger assaulted and raped her in 2004. Now, according to the British media The Guardian, Behan has asked that her case be re-investigated, after learning that a new suspect is being investigated for Madeleine's disappearance, since she claims that it is the same person who attacked her. Her assailant was never located.

Behan, who has closely followed what has been published these days about Christian Brückner , the new suspect in the case of Madeleine, a 43-year-old German, currently in prison and with a long history of sexual abuse, assures that What really caught his attention was Brückner's conviction for the rape of a 72-year-old woman in 2005 in Praia da Luz. "Both the tactics and the method he used, the tools he had with him and how he had planned everything. Reading about it all made me relive my experience," says Behan in The Guardian.

When Behan was raped, she worked as a vacation commercial in a resort in Praia da Rocha, another coastal town in Portugal very close to the place where the little British girl disappeared. It was 2004 and Behan was about to turn 21. "Someone called me and I woke up. I turned around and there was a man in tights and a 12-inch jersey and machete on his back . "

He was a tall man and his face was covered by a mask, although Behan could see that he had blue eyes and blond eyebrows. Later, when reporting the rape, he detailed to the police that his assailant spoke English with a German accent . The woman also said that the man had a mark on his right thigh. In the descriptions that these days the German media have published of Brückner it is affirmed that he has a birthmark on this same site.

Behan's assailant, who had placed a camera in the room, told the woman not to scream. He tied her up and took out a bag with whips and chains. He gagged her and began to beat and rape her. Behan's testimonial in 'The Guardian' is heartbreaking: "It seemed to me that he had deliberately planned everything. He constantly cleaned his hands and changed condoms repeatedly. He continued for about four or five hours ."

The attacker covered the woman with a sheet and she thought he was going to kill her. "But I saw him put on his shoes and run away." Weeks before the rape, Behan had noticed that someone had broken into her apartment, but she did not report it because she thought that no one would believe her.

Once alone in her apartment, Behan called the police. She was taken to the hospital and examined, but she says she does not know if forensic evidence was taken. She has always regretted that the police did not sufficiently investigate her case. "They told me to shut up and not tell what had happened because it would be bad publicity for the resort." "If the police had done their job and if that man was the same man who attacked the American woman, perhaps the attack on Madeleine could have been prevented," she says.

Behan, who lives in Ireland with her husband and two children, has provided a statement regarding her assault to the British police, who assured her that they would share that information with the Portuguese police. "It is the first time in 16 years that I have been offered help. I am hoping to close this chapter of my life," added Behan.

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