The man suspected of abducting Madeleine McCann is due to face trial accused of raping an Irish woman while she was living and working in Portugal.

‘Christian B’ became a formal suspect in the Madeleine McCann case in 2017; however, he has not been charged in relation to the British three-year-old’s disappearance and continues to deny any involvement.

He will tomorrow go on trial charged with a total of three rapes and two sex assaults against four people – the youngest of whom was ten years old at the time.

Handout Photo of Madeleine McCann.

The alleged victims include an Irish woman who has said she was raped twice, threatened with a knife, tied up, dragged by the hair and subjected to a prolonged attack by a tall, slim German-speaking man after he broke into her apartment in the resort of Praia da Rocha on Portugal's Algarve coast in 2004.

The now mother-of-three was just weeks from her 21st birthday and was working as a holiday rep in the seaside town at the time.

She has claimed Portuguese police failed to investigate her rape properly, failed to record a formal statement and told her, "It would ruin the holiday trade".

After seeing Christian B’s photograph in media reports revealing him to be the new suspect in the Madeleine case, she contacted Gardaí.

Witness

She told investigators that when she began to read his description, she “felt sick and vomited and my hands were sweating”.

“It was so alike to the exact description I had given to the police in Portugal at the time of my attack,” she said.

“I was raped by a man fitting the description.”

The woman is expected to be a key witness in the trial, which will be held on various days over the next four months in the German city of Braunschweig.

Christian B

The trial is being held there because it's Christian B's last registered home, though the five sex crimes he is charged with were allegedly committed in Portugal.

German privacy laws mean media outlets cannot make Christian B identifiable.

Madeleine McCann was nearly four years old when she vanished without a trace from her family's rented holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal in May 2007.

If you have been impacted by anything discussed n this article you can call the National 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline on 1800 77 8888.