🔗 Share this article

An alleged stalker who insisted to be the abducted child was ruled out after a secret DNA test established beyond doubt she was not Madeleine McCann, authorities disclosed in court.

Harassment Campaign Targeting McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, 24, is alleged to have conducted a campaign of harassment against the relatives of Madeleine, who went missing from a Portuguese resort in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The woman from Poland flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their older offspring, Sean and Amelie, with hundreds of calls, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and appeared at their home demanding a DNA test, jurors learned during proceedings.

Official Statements

Testifying on Tuesday, the chief investigator on Madeleine's disappearance, explained he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her conduct towards the McCann family”.

DCI Mark Cramwell said thirteen individuals had previously claimed to be the missing girl but that: “We would not take DNA unless we believed that person was Madeleine because I wished to avoid setting a precedent.

“If it became known in the media I had taken DNA off an individual probably not to be Madeleine, I was anxious I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I truly possess major concerns about approaching the family to say I aim to take DNA from an individual – that could have built up their expectations. It could have been quite emotionally damaging and challenging for the family.”

Genetic Testing

He said investigators had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of a lack of resemblance and that she was older by two years than the missing girl. But, he said, after learning Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on stalking charges, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.

He stated: “Testing was conducted. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is definitely not Madeleine McCann.”

Legal Testimony

The court heard that in April this year, the detective visited Wandelt in custody and told 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.”

Testimony indicated that while they spoke, Wandelt asked: “Do you sincerely wish to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he responded: “Yes.”

He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have tampered with the sample”, adding: “There was a possibility she would never accept she is not Madeleine despite being given scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

In prior court sessions, the court heard how the McCanns were left terrified and distressed by their “creepy” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to demand a DNA test.

Jurors heard how both women made “increasingly bizarre plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that the family visited.

Both defendants both refute one count of stalking. The trial continues.