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A suspected stalker who claimed to be the missing girl was ruled out after a confidential DNA test proved conclusively she was not the long-lost child, investigators stated in court.

Stalking Allegations Targeting McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, 24, is alleged to have conducted a stalking campaign against the relatives of Madeleine, who disappeared from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The woman from Poland overwhelmed 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 visited their home insisting on a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Police Testimony

Giving evidence on Tuesday, the chief investigator on Operation Grange, said he had gone against procedure to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her conduct towards the McCann family”.

DCI Mark Cramwell said over a dozen persons had previously claimed to be the missing girl but that: “We would not take DNA only if convinced that person was Madeleine because I did not want setting a precedent.

“If it was revealed in the media I had taken DNA from a person quite likely not to be Madeleine, I was anxious I would have had many persons coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I sincerely hold major concerns about contacting the family to say I intend to take DNA from an individual – that could have built up their expectations. It could have been very traumatic and challenging 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 older by two years than Madeleine. But, he said, after discovering Leicester police planned to arrest Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “determined that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.

He said: “Testing was conducted. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann.”

Legal Testimony

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

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

He said notwithstanding the evidence, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have interfered with the sample”, adding: “There existed a chance she would not believe she isn't Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Family Impact

In prior court sessions, jurors learned how the relatives were left frightened and upset by their “unnerving” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and the other accused Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to demand a DNA test.

The jury were told how the defendants made “increasingly bizarre plans” to acquire Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and removing cutlery from restaurants that they had eaten in.

Wandelt and Spragg both refute one count of stalking. Proceedings are ongoing.