🔗 Share this article

A suspected stalker who insisted to be the missing girl was ruled out after a confidential DNA test definitively confirmed she was not Madeleine McCann, investigators stated in court.

Harassment Campaign Against McCann Family

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

The Polish citizen bombarded Kate and Gerry McCann and their older offspring, Sean and Amelie, with numerous phone calls, messages, voicemails and letters over a period spanning 2022 to this year, and turned up at their home insisting on a DNA test, jurors learned during proceedings.

Police Testimony

Giving evidence on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on the missing person’s case, explained he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “with the aim she may stop her actions towards the McCann family”.

DCI Mark Cramwell said 13 people had previously claimed to be the abducted child but that: “We would not take DNA without strong belief that person was Madeleine because I wished to avoid setting a precedent.

“If it was revealed in the media I had taken DNA off an individual most likely not to be Madeleine, I was worried I would have had many persons coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I truly possess major concerns about contacting 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 difficult for the family.”

DNA Comparison

He said authorities had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of dissimilar appearance and that she was not the same age than the child. But, he said, after finding out Leicester police planned to arrest Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “decided that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

He declared: “Analysis occurred. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.”

Court Proceedings

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

The court heard that during their conversation, Wandelt asked: “Do you sincerely wish to find Madeleine?”, and the officer told the jury he replied: “Yes.”

He said notwithstanding the evidence, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have manipulated the sample”, adding: “There was a possibility she would never accept she isn't Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

During previous hearings, testimony revealed how the relatives were left terrified and traumatized by their “unnerving” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to demand a DNA test.

The court learned how both women made ever more strange plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included searching the McCanns’ bins and removing cutlery from restaurants that the McCanns dined at.

Both defendants both refute one count of stalking. The case remains active.