🔗 Share this article

An accused stalker who claimed to be Madeleine McCann was eliminated after a secret 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 pattern of threatening behavior against the family of Madeleine, who disappeared from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 as a three-year-old.

The Polish national bombarded Kate and Gerry McCann and their grown-up kids, Sean and Amelie, with countless communications, messages, voicemails and letters between 2022 and earlier this year, and turned up at their home insisting on a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Police Testimony

Testifying on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on the missing person’s case, stated he had gone against procedure to test Wandelt “with the aim she may stop her actions towards the McCann family”.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cramwell said 13 people had previously claimed to be Madeleine McCann but that: “We would not take DNA unless we believed that person was Madeleine because I aimed to prevent setting a precedent.

“If it became known 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 sincerely hold major concerns about approaching the family to say I intend to take DNA from an individual – that could have built up their expectations. It could have been highly distressing and difficult for the family.”

Forensic Analysis

He said investigators had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine due to dissimilar appearance and that she was two years older than the missing girl. But, he said, after learning Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “decided that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

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

Court Proceedings

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

The court heard that while they spoke, Wandelt said: “Do you really want 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 interfered with the sample”, stating: “It was possible she would refuse to acknowledge she isn't Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”

Emotional Distress

During previous hearings, testimony revealed how the family were left frightened and distressed by their “unnerving” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to insist on a DNA test.

The court learned how the defendants made progressively odd plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that they had eaten in.

Wandelt and Spragg both refute one count of stalking. The trial continues.