IRS agent accused of killing wife in rape fantasy plot admits to having affair with au pair turned alleged accomplice
The Virginia IRS agent accused of murdering his wife in a twisted rape-fantasy plot admitted to sleeping with his Brazilian au pair turned alleged accomplice — and also owned up to having affairs with two other women.Brendan Banfield, 40, copped to the adultery but called the lurid accusations against him “absolutely crazy,” while testifying in his own defense Wednesday in a trial full of twists and turns.“I had previous affairs,” Banfield told jurors.
He also said his 37-year-old wife, Christine Banfield, was aware that he engaged in two prior affairs — but she was clueless about his relationship with the family nanny, 25-year-old Juliana Peres Magalhães.Within months of Banfield beginning to sleep with Magalhães, Christine would be dead from stab wounds after a man snuck into their Herndon home in February 2023 and allegedly attempted to rape her — a supposed assault prosecutors claim was actually part of an elaborate plot the father and nanny concocted to get rid of Christine and run off together.Banfield dismissed those allegations, and testified instead that he’d tried early on to throw cold water on his relationship with Magalhães — who he claimed started the whole thing.“I have had affairs previously, and there is nothing that changes in mine and Christine’s relationship,” he recalled telling Magalhães shortly after they began sleeping together in Aug.2023.
“This was just an affair.”Magalhães made her advances while Christine was away and the two were alone at the house, Banfield testified, claiming she started complaining about her love life and began showing him men she was talking to on a dating app.“The people that were in the Hinge app all had similar names to me — their names were Brendan, and Brandon, and Brennan,” he said, explaining they ended up talking intimately for two hours.“She described people she was interested in — people that were taller, people that were older — and it appeared to me, along wi...