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A suspected stalker who insisted to be the abducted child was excluded after a confidential DNA test definitively confirmed she was not the missing girl, police have revealed in court.

Harassment Campaign Targeting McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, faces charges for a pattern of threatening behavior against the family of Madeleine, who went missing from a holiday destination in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The Polish national flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their grown-up kids, 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, jurors learned during proceedings.

Police Testimony

Providing testimony on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on Madeleine's disappearance, stated he had gone against procedure to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her actions towards the McCann family”.

DCI Mark Cramwell said 13 people had previously claimed to be the abducted child but that: “We would not take DNA unless we believed that person was Madeleine because I did not want setting a precedent.

“If it was revealed in the media I had taken DNA off an individual probably not to be Madeleine, I was anxious I would have had many persons coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I genuinely have major concerns about reaching out to the family to say I intend to take DNA from an individual – that could have built up their expectations. It could have been quite emotionally damaging and hard for the family.”

Genetic Testing

He said the police had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of a lack of resemblance and that she was older by two years than Madeleine. But, he said, after finding out Leicester police intended to detain Wandelt on criminal accusations, he “determined that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.

He said: “Testing was conducted. It conclusively proved that Julia Wandelt is definitely not Madeleine McCann.”

Legal Testimony

The court heard that in April this year, the officer met with Wandelt in custody and stated to 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.”

The court heard that during their conversation, Wandelt asked: “Do you really want to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he answered: “Yes.”

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

Emotional Distress

During previous hearings, jurors learned how the family were left frightened and distressed by their “creepy” and “deeply disturbing” 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 “increasingly bizarre plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included going through the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that the McCanns dined at.

Both defendants both contest one count of stalking. The trial continues.