🔗 Share this article

An accused stalker who claimed to be the abducted child was excluded after a covert DNA test proved conclusively she was not Madeleine McCann, investigators stated in court.

Targeted Behavior Targeting McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, 24, is accused of a pattern of threatening behavior against the relatives of Madeleine, who went missing from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 as a three-year-old.

The Polish citizen overwhelmed Kate and Gerry McCann and their older offspring, Sean and Amelie, with numerous phone calls, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and visited their home insisting on a DNA test, the court was earlier informed.

Investigation Details

Providing testimony on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on Operation Grange, said he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “intending 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 became known in the media I had taken DNA off an individual most likely not to be Madeleine, I was worried I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I truly possess 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 highly distressing and hard for the family.”

DNA Comparison

He said investigators had previously assessed Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of a lack of resemblance and that she was two years older than the child. But, he said, after discovering Leicester police intended to detain Wandelt on criminal accusations, he “determined that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

He said: “Analysis occurred. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann.”

Jury Hearings

Jurors learned that in April this year, Cranwell saw Wandelt under arrest and stated to her that her DNA had been tested alongside Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. The jury heard he told Wandelt while speaking with her: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

Evidence showed that throughout their discussion, Wandelt inquired: “Do you sincerely wish to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he replied: “Yes.”

He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have manipulated the sample”, stating: “There existed a chance she would refuse to acknowledge she cannot be Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

During previous hearings, testimony revealed how the relatives were left terrified and upset by their “creepy” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as both defendants attempted to insist on a DNA test.

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

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