'I'm broken': Reaction to prime Madeleine McCann suspect being acquitted of multiple assaults

"I'm shattered, you know. I'm really, really broken," Hazel Behan told ITV News' Sejal Karia

"Every ounce of blood, it just rushes to your feet. It kind of nearly paralyses you. Like that fear, that I hope I never feel again."

Hazel Behan, who bravely waived her right to anonymity, says she was attacked by German national Christian Brueckner in Portugal when she was working as a holiday rep aged 20.

Ms Behan said she was raped by the chief suspect in the Madeleine McCann case, and told ITV News she has been left broken after he was acquitted of attacking her and other women on Tuesday.

Brueckner is still in prison in Germany for other sexual offences and local authorities insist he is still the prime suspect in the disappearance and murder of three-year-old Madeleine.

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Ms Behan was attacked by a masked man, but she is certain it was Brueckner.

"He had piercing blue eyes. Oh, they bore into my head. They're there. They're imprinted on who I am. They'll never leave. Spend hours in a room with somebody who is absolutely torturing you and all you can see is their eyes. By God, you better believe I'll remember them. I made sure I'd remember them. I see them. I can see them every time I close my eyes."

On Tuesday he was cleared of a string of violent rapes and sexual abuse in the part of Portugal where Madeleine went missing.

We asked Ms Behan for her response to the verdict.

"I'm shattered, you know. I'm really, really broken," she said.

German prosecutors say they'll appeal, insisting their investigation into Madeleine's disappearance continues unhindered.

Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said Brueckner is the "prime suspect" and that he remains "the only suspect" they have in the Madeleine McCann case.

"We have evidence that he killed Madeleine McCann, but it's not the time for us to put it on the table and to decide if we could charge him or if you could go for an arrest warrant or something like that in the Madeleine case."

"Maybe we'll come to this point in the next year," he added.

ITV News' Cari Davies explains the background behind the Christian Brueckner case

Brueckner moved to Portugal from Germany in 1995 after being convicted of child sexual offences. German authorities caught up with him in 1999. After serving time in Germany, he returned to Portugal.

In 2005, he raped an American pensioner in Praia da Luz - two years later, Madeleine McCann disappeared from the same resort.

Brueckner then returned to Germany in 2017 to serve a sentence for child sexual abuse. In 2019, he was convicted for the 2005 rape of an American woman in Portugal.

On Tuesday, after he was found not guilty of the current charges, Brueckner's lawyers suggested he was only on trial because he was a suspect in Madeleine McCann's case.

German prosecutors remain convinced Christian Brueckner was involved, despite the acquittal. He denies any involvement.

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