🔗 Share this article

An alleged stalker who claimed to be the missing girl was excluded after a covert DNA test definitively confirmed she was not the long-lost child, investigators stated in court.

Stalking Allegations Against McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, 24, is accused of a stalking campaign against the parents of Madeleine, who vanished from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The Polish citizen bombarded Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with countless communications, messages, voicemails and letters over a period spanning 2022 to this year, and appeared at their home insisting on a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Police Testimony

Testifying on Tuesday, the lead detective on the missing person’s case, explained he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.

The senior officer said 13 people had in the past insisted to be the abducted child 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 someone quite likely not to be Madeleine, I was worried I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I sincerely hold major concerns about reaching out to the family to say I plan to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been quite emotionally damaging and challenging for the family.”

DNA Comparison

He said the police had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine due to dissimilar appearance and that she was older by two years than Madeleine. But, he said, after discovering Leicester police intended to detain Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

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

Legal Testimony

The court heard that in April this year, the detective saw Wandelt under arrest and informed her that her DNA had been tested alongside Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. The court learned he told Wandelt at that meeting: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

Evidence showed that while they spoke, Wandelt inquired: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and the detective told the jury he answered: “Yes.”

He said despite the test, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have manipulated the sample”, stating: “There was a possibility she would never accept she is not Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”

Family Impact

Earlier in the trial, testimony revealed how the family were left terrified and upset by their “creepy” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as both defendants attempted to push for a DNA test.

The jury were told how both women made ever more strange plans” to acquire Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and stealing utensils from restaurants that they had eaten in.

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