🔗 Share this article

An alleged stalker who asserted to be the missing girl was excluded after a confidential DNA test proved conclusively she was not the missing girl, authorities disclosed in court.

Stalking Allegations Against McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, is accused of a campaign of harassment against the family of Madeleine, who disappeared from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The Polish national bombarded 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 appeared at their home requesting a DNA test, the court was earlier informed.

Investigation Details

Testifying on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on Operation Grange, stated he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her conduct towards the McCann family”.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cramwell said over a dozen persons had earlier asserted 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 was revealed in the media I had taken DNA from a person quite likely not to be Madeleine, I was anxious I would have had numerous individuals 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 raised their hopes. It could have been quite emotionally damaging and difficult for the family.”

DNA Comparison

He said authorities had previously assessed 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 were going to take into custody Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

He stated: “Analysis occurred. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is definitely not Madeleine McCann.”

Court Proceedings

Jurors learned that in April this year, Cranwell met with Wandelt under arrest and stated to her that her DNA had been matched against Madeleine’s and that the profiles did not match. The jury heard 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 the detective told the jury he replied: “Yes.”

He said despite the test, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have manipulated the sample”, remarking: “There was a possibility she would never accept she cannot be Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Emotional Distress

In prior court sessions, the court heard how the McCanns were left scared and upset by their “disturbing” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to insist on a DNA test.

The jury were told how the pair made ever more strange plans” to obtain Kate McCann’s DNA, which included going through the McCanns’ bins and stealing utensils from restaurants that the family visited.

The accused women both contest one count of stalking. The case remains active.