An Irish woman who was raped by the lead suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappeance case has relived the terrifying ordeal telling the court she lied she was pregnant to make him stop.

Hazel Behan, who worked as a tour guide, told a court she was raped at knife point.

Behan waived her anonymity to publicly speak about the alleged attack in TV interviews.

She was reduced to tears as she relived the horrific moment.

Christian Brueckner, 47, the lead suspect in the missing toddler’s disappeance, is currently on trial accused of raping three women and carrying out indecent assaults on children.

Speaking through an interpreter, Behan said she had returned to her flat in Praia da Roche, in Portugal, in June 2004, after a row with her then-boyfriend when she was just 20.

She told the German court she had been to an Irish bar in the Praia da Roche resort but returned home alone following the spat.

Behan said: 'I thought it was my boyfriend who had come to apologise. After a short space of time I said to myself in my head, 'he doesn’t have a key so how did he get in?'

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"I had such a fear which I have never experience and it felt as if all the blood in my body went to my feet.

"I turned and saw a man fully dressed in black from head to toe, with a knife and the first thing he did was put his knee into my back and a hand over my mouth.

"He pulled my head and said in English 'Don’t f***ing scream or I will kill you', so that's why I didn’t. It was all very quick.

"He pulled my hair, and then positioned my body so that he was behind me, he removed my trousers and underwear and I tried to turn round.

"But he pulled my head back and said in English 'Don’t look at me' and then I smelt a fruity smell. I knew it was condoms, so I knew it was going to happen."

She added: "I had a picture of my sister on the wall next to the bed and I said 'Please don’t hurt me, she’s my baby'.

"I then said I was pregnant; I don’t know why I said I was pregnant I suppose I thought maybe he won’t go near a pregnant woman.

"But I was absolutely not pregnant. It didn’t work and then he held my hair and with the force of train, he entered my body."