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 called those allegations “absolutely crazy,” 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 with the photos of the screenshots of people that she had matched with, that she was basically describing me,” he said.
“She scooted her seat closer to mine a couple times,” he added. “I did not stop her advances.”
Banfield also claimed that his wife had her share of infidelities, and that they still loved each other and were going to therapy to work it out.
“I was also aware that she had affairs,” he said on the stand.
Magalhães — who struck a plea deal after her 2023 arrest — told a much different story about the double murder when she testified earlier this month.
She claimed Banfield decided he wanted to kill Christine by October 2023 — just two months after the affair began — and hatched an elaborate scheme to make a phony account on a fetish website and lure a patsy to their home as part of a rape-fantasy romp, who they would then kill and frame for the murder.
They allegedly pretended to be Christine on the site, and sent photos of her to Joseph Ryan, 38, while describing how she wanted him to help her live out a fantasy of being raped, the former au pair told jurors.
The X-rated meet up was set for Feb. 24, 2023 at the Banfield’s suburban home, Magalhães said.
“The door will be unlocked. Christine will be asleep in bed. Come straight upstairs, cut off her clothing, tie her, rape her. Simple and fun,” prosecutor Jenna Sands said Brendan told Ryan
The morning of the killings, the nanny said she waited in a car with the Banfields’ young daughter, and when Ryan arrived she called Christine’s phone – which she knew Brendan had turned off. The au pair then called Brendan to tell him someone was breaking into his home, she testified.
The cheating duo then allegedly left the daughter in the basement and went upstairs where Christine – a former nurse for sexual assault victims – believed she was actually being raped by a man with a knife, the ex-nanny said.
Brendan then shot Ryan with his service gun to make it appear as though he’d valiantly saved Christine’s life, Magalhães testified.
He also stabbed Christine in the neck and face, killing her, prosecutors claimed.
The husband didn’t want to foot the bill for a pricey divorce and believed Christine was a “terrible” mom so he decided to off her, prosecutors claimed.
Brendan wasn’t arrested until over a year laterin September 2024.
Magalhães pleaded guilty to manslaughter in October 2024 and is set to be sentenced after Brendan’s trial wraps.
Banfield has pleaded not guilty to murder and gun possession charges.
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