When Hazel Behan left a German courtroom last May, she could have been forgiven for thinking she had been on trial for her own sexual assault.
The Co Westmeath woman submitted to 10 gruelling hours of testimony over two days while her alleged attacker, Christian Brückner, sat metres away from her, impassive and silent, in a crumpled blue linen jacket. He was accused of raping her repeatedly during a violent attack in June 2004 at her home in Portugal where she was working as a holiday rep.
His acquittal on Tuesday is not the final word on the case: the prosecutor has announced an appeal after an unusually testy trial.
Claims by chief prosecutor Ute Lindemann that the court had put witnesses on trial, though highly unusual in German legal proceedings, was shared by seasoned court watchers in Braunschweig.
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Several criticised presiding judge Uta Engemann last May for her lack of sensitivity and empathy with Hazel Behan, asking questions that – both in their content and tone – prompted regular gasps from the public gallery.
Throughout the lengthy questioning, conducted through an interpreter, Behan remained calm and composed as she fielded questions about her character, her relationships and her sex life.
She remained composed even when, near the end of the two days, defence lawyer Atilla Aykac asked had she not been informed by her legal team that she could testify in a closed court. “Why are you telling the story in an open court?” he asked.
Behan said she knew her options, adding: “I have no issue with the public hearing what I have to say. We all know why I’m here.”
Throughout proceedings, Brückner’s all-male legal team repeatedly interrupted the female judge and prosecutor, talking over them – and, at times it seemed, down to them.
In his summing up, Friedrich Fülscher accused prosecutor Lindemann of lacking “emotional distance” from the proceedings.
The judge didn’t ask Fülscher to explain that remark, nor why he wrote directly to Behan in 2020, asking her for the case file and insisting his client was innocent.
Behan said she found the letter, presented to the court by her defence lawyer, as “very unusual”, adding that “in Ireland it wouldn’t be allowed”.
Senior court officials agreed that the letter was “borderline”.
In her ruling Engemann focused instead on her perceived critics inside and outside the courtroom, in particular the prosecution and media. They were responsible for “massive auto-suggestion” towards the defendant, due to his link to the Madeleine McCann case.
Judge Engemann acknowledged her verdict “may be extremely unsatisfactory for victims” but that there was insufficient evidence for a conviction.
“When a person is described in the media as a sex monster and a pervert,” she added, “then it influences the witness and court testimony is almost worthless.”
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