🔗 Share this article

An alleged stalker who claimed to be the missing girl was ruled out after a covert DNA test definitively confirmed she was not Madeleine McCann, investigators stated in court.

Stalking Allegations Towards McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, faces charges for a campaign of harassment against the parents of Madeleine, who disappeared from a holiday destination in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The Polish national flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their older offspring, Sean and Amelie, with countless communications, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and appeared at their home insisting on a DNA test, the court was earlier informed.

Police Testimony

Providing testimony on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on Operation Grange, said he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “with the aim she may stop her conduct towards the McCann family”.

The senior officer said over a dozen persons 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 aimed to prevent setting a precedent.

“If it got out 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 truly possess major concerns about approaching the family to say I aim to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been very traumatic and difficult for the family.”

Forensic Analysis

He said the police had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of 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 stalking charges, he “decided that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.

He stated: “Testing was conducted. It conclusively proved that Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann.”

Court Proceedings

Jurors learned that in April this year, Cranwell met with Wandelt in custody and told her that her DNA had been matched against Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. The court learned he told Wandelt at that meeting: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

The court heard that during their conversation, Wandelt asked: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and the detective told the jury he responded: “Yes.”

He said despite the test, he believed Wandelt “would suggest we have interfered with the sample”, remarking: “There existed a chance she would refuse to acknowledge she cannot be Madeleine despite being given scientific proof.”

Emotional Distress

In prior court sessions, testimony revealed how the relatives were left scared and upset by their “disturbing” and “deeply disturbing” interactions with Wandelt and the other accused Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to push for a DNA test.

The jury were told how the pair made “increasingly bizarre plans” to acquire Kate McCann’s DNA, which included searching the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that the McCanns dined at.

The accused women both contest one count of stalking. Proceedings are ongoing.