Accusations against Christian Brückner included the rape of Irish woman Helen Behan
Hazel Behan approached British police after seeing a report into Brückner's conviction for the 2005 attack with an image of him. Photograph: RTEDuring 10 hours of testimony over two days last May the Westmeath native insisted Brückner was the man who raped her repeatedly in June 2004 while she worked as a holiday rep, an attack that left her with lasting physical injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Brückner has multiple previous convictions, including a 2019 sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old American tourist in Portugal in 2005. He is serving that sentence in Oldenburg, is set for release next year, and at present faces no charges in the McCann case. McCann went missing in Portugal in 2007.
In closing arguments on Monday, chief defence lawyer Friedrich Fülscher insisted that there had “never been sufficient suspicion” against his client and that the case had only come to court because of links to the Madeleine McCann case. He said there was not only a lack of evidence but that the witnesses who testified were “not credible”.
As well as the attack on Ms Behan and the charges relating to children, Brückner was accused of raping a woman aged between 70-80 in her holiday flat and filming it. A witness in Braunschweig said he had seen the attack on video and recognised Brückner in it, however it had not been possible to identify the victim or the whereabouts of the video.
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