An Irish woman claims suspect Madeleine McCann’s eyes “bored” into her skull as he raped her

Ms. Behan, an administrative worker and mother of three, sat just a few meters from Brückner and told the court on the second and final day of testimony, which lasted over 10 hours, that she still bears the scars of the attack that took place in Praia da Rocha took place in the Algarve, where she worked as a holiday representative.

Brückner, 47, was once asked by the judge to approach the bench so she could examine his eyes after Ms Behan said she would “never forget” her attacker’s eyes.

When you spend time with a person in a situation like this and you can’t see anything else about that person other than their eyes, that’s the only thing you can remember. They drilled into my skull.

She added that she believed the impact of her attacker’s eyes was heightened by the fact that he was otherwise dressed entirely in black.

“They were just so blue…everything was so dark…they were like lights, they were so bright. I just know them,” she said.

Her attacker was masked and covered from head to toe in a leotard-like body suit about 60 deniers thick and was wearing leather or faux leather gloves, she said, adding that only his eyes were visible.

The court was shown images of scars on the back of her legs, which remain to this day, from where she was tied with a rope to a breakfast bar during the ongoing attack.

He spoke to her in English, as she said, with a German accent.

Brückner is serving a seven-year prison sentence for raping an American tourist in the Algarve in 2005.

His release is scheduled for the end of next year.

Ms Behan said she came forward to give the report of her ordeal to British police in 2020, in response to an appeal from police working on the McCann case.

The appeal was accompanied by an official police ID photo of Brückner.

The sight of the image and the physical description of him made her feel sick and later caused her to vomit, she said.

She then learned of Brückner’s conviction for raping an elderly American tourist in 2019 and told Irish, British and German police the striking similarities in the attacker’s modus operandi in the woman’s case and in her case.

For two days, Ms Behan told the court in graphic detail how she was repeatedly raped, whipped and tied up in her home, with her attacker filming the ordeal on a camera he set up on the television in her room.

The attacker threatened her, saying: “If you scream, I will kill you.”

At one point she said she was afraid she would be beheaded after he attacked her with a knife.

Brückner denies the allegations of sexual assault and also denies involvement in McCann’s disappearance.

The process continues.