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An alleged stalker who claimed to be Madeleine McCann was excluded after a covert DNA test established beyond doubt she was not the missing girl, investigators stated in court.

Targeted Behavior Towards McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, is alleged to have conducted a stalking campaign against the family of Madeleine, who disappeared from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 when she was three.

The woman from Poland bombarded Kate and Gerry McCann and their older offspring, Sean and Amelie, with hundreds of calls, messages, voicemails and letters over a period spanning 2022 to this year, and appeared at their home insisting on a DNA test, jurors learned during proceedings.

Official Statements

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

DCI Mark Cramwell said over a dozen persons had earlier asserted to be the missing girl 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 off an individual probably 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 approaching the family to say I aim to take DNA from an individual – that could have built up their expectations. It could have been highly distressing and challenging for the family.”

Genetic Testing

He said investigators had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of dissimilar appearance and that she was two years older than the child. But, he said, after finding out Leicester police planned to arrest Wandelt on criminal accusations, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.

He said: “A comparison took place. It conclusively proved that Julia Wandelt is definitely not Madeleine McCann.”

Legal Testimony

The court heard that in April this year, the detective saw Wandelt while detained and informed her that her DNA had been compared to Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. The court learned he told Wandelt during the visit: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

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

He said despite the test, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have manipulated the sample”, remarking: “There existed a chance she would refuse to acknowledge she cannot be Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”

Family Impact

Earlier in the trial, jurors learned how the McCanns were left scared and traumatized by their “creepy” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as both defendants attempted to demand a DNA test.

The jury were told how the defendants made ever more strange plans” to obtain Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that they had eaten in.

The accused women both contest one count of stalking. The trial continues.