🔗 Share this article

An alleged stalker who asserted to be the abducted child was excluded after a covert DNA test established beyond doubt she was not the long-lost child, police have revealed in court.

Targeted Behavior Targeting McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, aged 24, faces charges for a stalking campaign against the family of Madeleine, who went missing from a Portuguese resort in Portugal in 2007 as a three-year-old.

The woman from Poland bombarded Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with hundreds of calls, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and appeared at their home requesting a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Police Testimony

Providing testimony on Tuesday, the lead detective on the missing person’s case, explained he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her conduct towards the McCann family”.

The senior officer said 13 people had in the past insisted to be Madeleine McCann but that: “We would not take DNA unless we believed that person was Madeleine because I wished to avoid setting a precedent.

“If it got out in the media I had taken DNA from someone quite likely 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 contacting the family to say I aim to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been highly distressing and difficult for the family.”

DNA Comparison

He said the police had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine due to a lack of resemblance and that she was older by two years than the missing girl. But, he said, after discovering Leicester police intended to detain Wandelt on stalking charges, he “decided that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.

He stated: “Analysis occurred. It conclusively proved that Julia Wandelt is definitely not Madeleine McCann.”

Legal Testimony

Jurors learned that in April this year, Cranwell met with Wandelt in custody and informed her that her DNA had been compared to Madeleine’s and that the profiles did not match. The jury heard he told Wandelt while speaking with her: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

Evidence showed that while they spoke, Wandelt said: “Do you really want to find Madeleine?”, and the officer told the jury he answered: “Yes.”

He said despite the test, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have interfered with the sample”, stating: “It was possible she would not believe she is not Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Emotional Distress

During previous hearings, the court heard how the family were left scared and traumatized by their “disturbing” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice 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 acquire Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and removing cutlery from restaurants that the family visited.

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