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An accused stalker who claimed to be the abducted child was eliminated after a confidential DNA test definitively confirmed she was not the missing girl, authorities disclosed in court.

Stalking Allegations Towards McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, faces charges for a stalking campaign against the family of Madeleine, who went missing from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The woman from Poland overwhelmed Kate and Gerry McCann and their grown-up kids, Sean and Amelie, with numerous phone calls, messages, voicemails and letters over a period spanning 2022 to this year, and appeared at their home requesting a DNA test, jurors learned during proceedings.

Investigation Details

Providing testimony on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on Operation Grange, stated he had gone against procedure to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.

DCI Mark Cramwell 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 did not want setting a precedent.

“If it became known in the media I had taken DNA from someone quite likely not to be Madeleine, I was concerned I would have had many persons coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I genuinely have major concerns about approaching 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 difficult for the family.”

Forensic Analysis

He said investigators had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of no physical similarity and that she was not the same age than the child. 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 declared: “A comparison took place. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.”

Court Proceedings

The court heard that in April this year, the detective saw Wandelt in custody and told her that her DNA had been compared to Madeleine’s and that the genetic markers 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 the officer told the jury he replied: “Yes.”

He said notwithstanding the evidence, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have interfered with the sample”, adding: “There was a possibility she would never accept she is not Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”

Emotional Distress

Earlier in the trial, testimony revealed how the McCanns were left terrified and distressed by their “creepy” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to push for a DNA test.

The court learned how the pair made progressively odd plans” to obtain Kate McCann’s DNA, which included going through the McCanns’ bins and stealing utensils from restaurants that they had eaten in.

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