The vile sex crime allegations against Madeleine McCann suspect, Christian Brueckner, have been revealed in court.
The 47-year-old is on trial for three rapes and two sex assaults - unrelated to McCann - in the Algarve region of Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
Brueckner allegedly whipped a woman in her 70s at least 20 times, made a teenager vomit during sexual abuse and left one woman fearing he would behead her.
The German prisoner remains a prime suspect behind the disappearance of three-year-old McCann.
The vile sex crime allegations against Madeleine McCann suspect, Christian Brueckner, have been revealed in court
Reuters
He has denied being involved in the abduction in 2007 and has not been charged with any crime related to it.
Prosecutor Ute Lindemann told the court that Brueckner had used a rape drug to incapacitate his victims before imprisoning them in his house.
Sickening details were read out regarding the alleged rape of Hazel Behan, who has waived her anonymity.
The prosecutor said: "He went to witness Behan's bedroom and found her sleeping there.
"At this point he was dressed entirely in black, wearing leather gloves and a full face mask. This only had two round cutouts for the eyes and a small slit for the mouth, so that the injured party could only see the accused's eyes and his eyebrows.
"He held a knife with an approximately 30cm long blade in his left hand, knelt over the sleeping victim and called her name, which woke her up. He held the knife in such a way that the injured party could see it clearly when she woke up.
"While she was panicking, he told her in a serious but calm tone not to scream, covered her mouth and pushed her head back onto the pillow. He then pulled her up from the bed by her outer clothing and hair and turned her onto her back.
"After completing anal intercourse, the accused removed the condom from his penis, put it in the backpack he had brought with him and cleaned his gloves with a cleaning cloth he had brought with him."
The court heard that the man then dragged Behan into the kitchen, set up a camera and recording himself tying her with rope to a breakfast bar.
The accused was then said to have tied the victim's hands together with her belt and gagged her with a cloth type material.
According to prosecutor Lindemann, Behan was unable to move and had her top and bra cut with scissors before the accused put a fresh condom over his penis and again penetrated the victim.
"The accused now turned to the witness Behan with the question 'You're scared, aren't you?', which she untruthfully denied," Lindemann added.
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"The accused then took a whip with a handle and long leather tassels out of his pocket and systematically whipped the victim from the back down to the buttocks, which, according to the accused's plan, caused her considerable pain."
He then attempted to orally penetrate the victim, which was unsuccessful.
The court heard: "While holding the knife, the accused asked the injured party to go to the bathroom, which she verbally refused in no uncertain terms.
"The accused did not pursue this request, but instead grabbed the injured party by her hair again, dragged her to the small sofa in front of the living room window and asked her to kneel in front of the sofa and lower her head.
"At that moment, the witness Behan was in fear of death because she feared that the accused would cut off her head with the knife."
He then reportedly threw a sheet over the woman, collected his items and fled.
The other two rapes he is accused of against an unknown woman aged between 70 and 80 years old and a girl aged 14 were also described in court.
The prosecutor alleged that the accused wore a stocking mask that only had holes for his eyes and mouth when he put goggles, which were painted grey, on the older lady so she could not see.
Lindemann claims the victim's hands were tied and after the suspect set up a camera, the woman was penetrated.
She added: "He then went back to the victim's bed with a whip and hit the woman's body and face with at least 20 lashes in order to enjoy the pain and fear he wanted in the woman.
"The victim screamed and insulted the accused while the crime was being carried out. After the physical punishment, the accused sat down on the end of the bed, breathing heavily, took off his mask and placed a pillow on the completely frightened woman's face before ending the recording".
Discussing the accusations regarding the teenager's attack, the prosecutor told the court the accused met an unknown, German-speaking, youthful-looking girl with glasses, aged at least 14 years, in the Sitio das Lages house in Praia where he lived.
Prosecutor Ute Lindemann told the court that Brueckner had used a rape drug to incapacitate his victims before imprisoning them in his house
ReutersHe is said to have tied the naked girl to a wooden post and hit the victim with a whip.
"She begged him to stop and shouted 'this is kidnapping, this is rape'. The accused acknowledged the girl's conflicting will, but only put the whip aside and gave in to his excitement," Lindemann said.
The prosecutor then alleged Brueckner performed oral rape on the victim, which caused her to vomit.
Defending, Friedrich Fulscher said Behan was raped and "went through something terrible that night".
But added: "A masked man forced her to have sex, inflicted pain on her and humiliated her. However, the person who committed this offence was not the defendant. Mrs Behan may be convinced of this.
"During the hearing of evidence, it will be important for the defence to demonstrate the sources of error in the witness's recognition: Starting with the low reliability of estimating body size, the circumstance of masking, the poor lighting conditions at the crime scene, the impact of the weapon focus effect, as well as the stress level and the passage of time.
"If one comes to the conclusion that the witness is sufficiently reliable with regard to the description of the person, this will also have to be taken as a basis for her observation that the perpetrator had a cross-shaped scar on his right thigh.
"This is a physical feature that the accused does not have and therefore excludes him as the perpetrator.
"At the end of the hearing of evidence, it will not be possible to establish that the defendant sitting here is responsible for the offence committed against Hazel Behan. As in the other cases, he will have to be acquitted."
In his rebuttal, he also queried the accuracy of key witnesses two former friends of Brueckner - Helge Busching and Manfred Seyferth - who helped secure his 2019 conviction for rape.
Both men said they saw a recording of the rape of the elderly victim but this footage has not been recovered.
In his opening statement, Brueckner's lawyer said his client had been the victim of an "unfair media campaign" and that prosecutors repeated "this theory to the media like a prayer wheel."
