RAPE victim Hazel Behan today issues an impassioned appeal for Maddie McCann main suspect Christian Brueckner never to be released from jail.
Brueckner, 47, was this week acquitted by a German court of raping holiday rep Ms Behan as well as another woman and a 14-year-old girl in Portugal.
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Presiding judge Uta Engemann called Hazel a “credible witness” and declared: “We have no doubt that something terrible happened to her.”
But the judge said there was not enough evidence to convict German national Brueckner, explaining: “There is no DNA, no fingerprints, no objects which were found to prove that he was there.”
The convicted paedophile — who is currently in a German jail for the 2005 rape of a US pensioner — was acquitted of three further counts of rape and two counts of child sexual abuse.
Brave Hazel, 41, who has waived her right to anonymity, told the trial she was raped by Brueckner at her Algarve apartment in 2004 when she was working as a holiday rep.
Hazel, then aged 20, said she was subjected to a prolonged ordeal at knifepoint by a masked man who broke into her apartment — and she identified Brueckner by his “piercing eyes”.
‘Allowing him to be free is an injustice’
He was sentenced in 2019 to seven years for the rape of the 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz.
That is the same Portuguese seaside resort where Madeleine went missing in 2007 while on a holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry and her baby twin siblings.
Prosecutors in Brueckner’s latest trial described him as a “sadistic psychopath” and called for him to be caged for a further 15 years.
But the acquittal this week means he could be released from prison next year, despite a psychiatrist rating him “in the top league of dangerousness”.
Brueckner may even be on the streets within days as part of a pre-freedom day-release programme.
Chief prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters has pledged to appeal this week’s verdicts, claiming the judges at the court in Braunschweig, northern Germany, were biased from the start.
Wolters is now pushing for a retrial at the Supreme Court as part of a bid to keep Brueckner locked up.
In an exclusive interview last night, rape victim Hazel, from Dublin, pleaded for Brueckner never to be freed.
She told us: “The verdict, it didn’t shock me. I feel the judge had made her mind up already.
“But it really hurt, it angered me. It put more fear in me.
“I’m afraid for myself, but I’m also afraid for the public.
I think he poses a threat to other women and children
Hazel
“I feel Christian Brueckner is a very dangerous man.
“I feel the court should have listened to the recommendations of the specialists and other people.
“And I don’t think he should be let out of prison.
“I think he poses a threat to other women and children. And I think allowing him to be free is an injustice to us all. Not just on me, but on other people as well.
“He’s a very, very dangerous man.”
Brueckner was accused of subjecting Hazel to a violent attack in June 2004 after breaking into her Praia da Rocha apartment.
Hazel told the trial how her attacker stood over her bed and woke her by calling her name before proceeding to rape her repeatedly over several hours.
Brueckner was this week cleared of that, and separately of raping a girl of 14 and an elderly British woman.
He was also cleared of grabbing a child and performing a sex act on himself, near Praia da Luz weeks before Madeleine was abducted there aged three.
Traumatised Hazel maintains Brueckner — who has a history of child sex offences and other crimes — was the man who brutally attacked her.
She told us: “I believe the person who committed the crimes against me is Christian Brueckner.
“I find it quite offensive that somebody could tell me what I do and don’t remember. I remember his eyes.
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“I know that people might find that very difficult to understand.
“But I know what I saw and I know what I remember.”
Emotional Hazel, now a mum of three, told how she still sees Brueckner’s eyes every night when she goes to sleep.
Fighting back tears, she said: “I know what I see every time I close my eyes. I see his eyes. I don’t need a newspaper. I don’t need a photograph to remind me of him.
“I see them for the past 20 years every night when I go to sleep. So I don’t need somebody to tell me that I’m wrong on that.
“I know what the truth is. I know it was him.
Everything that I’ve done in my life, every holiday, every concert that I went to, every public event, I would look for him. He is imprinted in my brain in pain
Hazel
“With the greatest respect to judges and anybody else, I understand why people would say, ‘Sure, how can you recognise his eyes?’
“But can you imagine if you’re in that horrendous situation with someone and all you’re trying to do is pick out things that you can remember? To remember as much as you can, saying to myself this will help find him.
“All I saw of him was his eyes. I will never forget them.
‘I really do believe he will re-offend’
“So for a judge or anybody else to tell me, ‘She couldn’t recognise,’ . . . don’t tell me what I recognise.
“Everything that I’ve done in my life, every holiday, every concert that I went to, every public event, I would look for him. It’s imprinted.”
Judge Engemann granted Brueckner a full acquittal after the eight-month trial.
She also ruled the evidence “was not enough for a conviction” in the other cases.
Cops have warned “the clock is ticking” as they race to stop Brueckner — who German prosecutors named in June 2020 as the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine — going back on the streets.
A former cell mate recently claimed Brueckner confessed to taking a child from a Portuguese flat during a break-in.
But Brueckner has never been formally charged and denies involvement.
I’ve been on the receiving end of Christian Brueckner. And I really do believe that he will re-offend
Hazel
Worried Hazel last night said she was “terrified” of the prospect of the sexual predator being released — and warned that he will strike again.
She declared: “I’ve been on the receiving end of Christian Brueckner.
“And I really do believe that he will re-offend.
“I don’t think somebody who is as sick as him cannot.
“It’s like a compulsion, like they have to do it. It’s a need, a sick need for people like that. And it’s never stopped him before.
“Court cases, jail time, these kinds of things have never stopped him.
“You’d want to be a special kind of f***ed up to want to touch children or rape women. He’s never going to learn a lesson.
“He’s going to do it again. He doesn’t care about anyone.
“I’m terrified at the prospect of him getting out.”
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Focus back on Algarve
COPS believe Madeleine McCann was murdered in Portugal shortly after being snatched.
They are preparing to identify potential search areas in the country where she went missing rather than in Germany where prime suspect Christian Brueckner is from.
A key line of inquiry is that Madeleine never left Portugal and died soon after she vanished in 2007, sources say.
Searches last year of the Arade dam in Silves, Portugal, where Brueckner visited, were focused on finding a weapon.
A source said: “Police are saying they believe Brueckner took Maddie in Portugal and killed her in Portugal.
“They are so persuaded, they no longer have a huge focus on Germany.
“They have no forensic evidence, but are very keen to establish some.
“For this they remain much more interested in Portugal.”
Paedo Brueckner, 47, was cleared this week of three rapes and two counts of sexual abuse of children related to incidents that allegedly took place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
His lawyers have now threatened to appeal a 2019 rape conviction for which he is serving seven years in prison.
Brueckner was identified in 2020 as the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.
He is yet to be charged and denies involvement.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “We’ll keep investigating Maddie for as long as we need.”
