🔗 Share this article

An alleged stalker who insisted to be the abducted child was eliminated after a confidential DNA test established beyond doubt she was not the missing girl, authorities disclosed in court.

Harassment Campaign Against McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, faces charges for a stalking campaign against the relatives of Madeleine, who disappeared from a Portuguese resort in Portugal in 2007 as a three-year-old.

The Polish citizen flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their older offspring, Sean and Amelie, with hundreds of calls, messages, voicemails and letters over a period spanning 2022 to this year, and appeared at their home demanding a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Investigation Details

Testifying on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on the missing person’s case, said he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.

DCI Mark Cramwell said 13 people had earlier asserted to be the missing girl but that: “We would not take DNA only if convinced that person was Madeleine because I aimed to prevent setting a precedent.

“If it got out in the media I had taken DNA from a person probably not to be Madeleine, I was worried I would have had numerous individuals coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I sincerely hold major concerns about approaching the family to say I plan to take DNA from an individual – that could have raised their hopes. It could have been very traumatic and challenging for the family.”

DNA Comparison

He said investigators had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine due to a lack of resemblance and that she was two years older than Madeleine. But, he said, after finding out Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on criminal accusations, he “decided that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

He stated: “A comparison took place. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann.”

Court Proceedings

Jurors learned that in April this year, the officer visited Wandelt while detained and stated to her that her DNA had been tested alongside Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. The court learned he told Wandelt while speaking with her: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

Evidence showed that during their conversation, Wandelt asked: “Do you sincerely wish to find Madeleine?”, and the officer told the jury he responded: “Yes.”

He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have tampered with the sample”, adding: “It was possible she would never accept she cannot be Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

During previous hearings, testimony revealed how the relatives were left terrified and upset by their “creepy” and “deeply disturbing” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to push for a DNA test.

Jurors heard how both women made progressively odd plans” to obtain Kate McCann’s DNA, which included searching the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that they had eaten in.

The accused women both refute one count of stalking. The case remains active.